In this presentation, Dr. Nolan Higdon, author of The Anatomy of Fake News, and Dr. Steve Macek, professor of media studies at North Central College, provide an overview of the problem of fake news and corporate misinformation and discuss the need for critical media literacy in our schools. They detail what a genuinely critical media literacy education involves and distinguish it from the corporate-friendly media literacy curriculum that is sometimes taught in our schools.
This program was originally produced as a community virtual learning event by AAUW Naperville Area (IL) on March 14, 2023.
About the Speakers
Dr. Steve Macek (Ph.D., University of Minnesota) is Professor of Communication and Chair of the Department of Communication and Media Studies at North Central College in Naperville, IL, where he teaches courses on media studies and the First Amendment. Macek speaks and writes frequently for non-scholarly audiences. His op-eds on media, communication policy and academic freedom issues have appeared in The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The News and Observer, The Seattle Times, Truthout, The Columbus Dispatch and others.
Dr. Nolan Higdon is an author and university lecturer at Merrill College and the Education Department at University of California, Santa Cruz. Higdon’s areas of concentration include podcasting, digital culture, news media history, and critical media literacy. His most recent publications include Let’s Agree to Disagree: A Critical Thinking Guide to Communication, Conflict Management, and Critical Media Literacy (Routledge, 2022) with Mickey Huff and The Podcaster’s Dilemma: Decolonizing Podcasters in the Era of Surveillance Capitalism (Wiley, 2021) with Nicholas Baham III.
