Delivered at the Holland Symposium at Angelo State University, February 15, 2024. Digital tools are used to create a tsunami of entertainment, information, and persuasion that floods into our daily lives because media messages influence knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. Some people are overwhelmed and others are exhilarated by the rise of generative AI, which is quickly becoming normative for both creators and consumers alike. At the same time, mistrust and distrust are rising because it’s so easy to use digital media tools to activate strong emotions, simplify information, and attack opponents. Thanks to algorithmic personalization, new forms of propaganda are being created and shared on social media. Tailored to our deepest hopes, fears, and dreams, these messages can, at times, seem irresistible. But the practice of media literacy education offers a humanistic response to the changing nature of knowledge caused by the rise of big data and its reshaping of the arts, business, the sciences, education, and the humanities. Learn how educators can help learners to ask critical questions that enable people to recognize the subtle forms of manipulation embedded in all forms of symbolic expression. Gain an understanding of the business models and technological affordances of AI, machine learning, and big data in order to distinguish between harmful and beneficial AI tools, texts, and technologies. Learn why creative and critical thinking, when it is combined with intellectual humility and empathy, help people develop the identity of a lifelong learner. When media literacy is embedded in education at all levels, people can find common ground, restore trust, and deepen respect for the shared human values of care and compassion. BIOGRAPHY Renee Hobbs is one of the world’s leading experts on media literacy education. She is Founder of the Media Education Lab, a global online community. Hobbs’s book, Mind Over Media: Propaganda Education for a Digital Age won the 2021 Prose Award for Excellence in Social Sciences from the American Association of Publishers. She began her career by offering the first teacher education program in media literacy education at Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has since inspired a generation of students, teachers, and citizens on four continents who have helped develop a global media literacy movement. As a full professor at the University of Rhode Island, Hobbs has published 12 books and more than 200 scholarly and professional articles. Her engaging talks clearly demonstrate how media literacy can be implemented in home, school, workplace, and community settings. Audiences enjoy Hobbs’ passion and energy and the skillful way she engages people from all walks of life in ways that activate critical thinking about contemporary popular culture and media messages, especially the new types of persuasive genres on social media that may escape people’s scrutiny.

1. Artificial Intelligence, Media Literacy
& American Values
How can media literacy help us retain creativity
and critical thinking in an AI world?
Renee Hobbs
University of Rhode Island USA
Media Education Lab
Email: hobbs@uri.edu
Twitter: @reneehobbs

2. www.mediaeducationlab.com

5. Media-Related Challenges in 2024
DIGITAL ADDICTION & DEPENDENCY
POLARIZED POLITICAL CLIMATE
PROPAGANDA & DISINFORMATION
DATA SECURITY, SCAMS & CYBERCRIME
MEDIA & MENTAL HEALTH
NEWS AVOIDERS
CENTRALIZED POWER
OF DIGITAL PLATFORMS
AI IMPACT ON
THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

6.  Invest in quality journalism
 Create new kinds of news and information formats
 Incentivize digital platforms to increase accountability
 Change social norms among business & civic leaders
 Strengthen civic institutions
 Increase research investment in media & society issues
 Punish hate speech & other harmful forms of expression
 Increase regulation of digital platforms
 Build citizens’ resilience and media literacy competencies
Important Strategies to Consider

11. TECHNOCRACY
A society that is dominated by digital platforms

12. SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM

14. Balancing
Protection & Empowerment
for an AI World

15. How do you interact with
AI-generated people?

16. How do you interact with
AI-generated propaganda?

17. Sora is a generative AI
platform that can take a
short text description and
turn it into a detailed, high-
definition film clip up to a
minute long

18. Language, Media & Technology
Create Unreal Realities

19. Texts
The symbolic forms used to
convey meaning
Authorship
The people, platforms, and processes
used to construct meaning through
symbols
Literacy
The sharing of meaning through symbols
Image created by Canva AI

20. SOURCE: NAMLE 2024

21. BEING ONLINE
Access & Inclusion
Learning & Creativity
Media & Information Literacy
WELLBEING ONLINE
Ethics & Empathy
Health & Wellbeing
E-Presence & Communication
RIGHTS ONLINE
Active Participation
Rights & Responsibilities
Privacy & Security
Consumer Awareness
SOURCE: Council of Europe (2018). Digital Citizenship Education (DCE).

22. Media Literacy is a Moving Target

23. SOURCE: NAMLE 2024

24. Viewing and Representing
• Understand and interpret visual images,
messages, and meanings (visual representation)
through distinguishing purposes of messages
and analyzing ideas present in media
• Analyze and critique the significance of visual
images, messages, and meanings (visual
representations) through deconstructing media
to get to the main idea of the message and
critiquing the effectiveness of persuasive
techniques
• Produce visual representations that
communicate with others
1998
Texas Essential
Knowledge and Skills
(TEKS)

25. English Language Arts and Reading
(ELAR)
• identifying forms & purposes
• explaining positive and negative impacts of
advertisements
• comparing and contrasting how a single event
is portrayed by visual images versus non-visual
texts
• evaluating how messages reflect social and
cultural views
• evaluating techniques used to create a point
of view in media and the impact on the audience
• examining how individual perception or bias in
coverage of the same event influences the
audience
2010

26. 2017
HS Elective Courses (TEKS)
• Contemporary Media
• Visual Media Analysis and Production
• Journalism
• Broadcast Journalism
• Photojournalism

27. 2023
Civics Training Program
Section 21.4555
• classroom discussion of current
events
• media literacy, including instruction
on verifying information and
sources, identifying and responding
to logical fallacies, and identifying
propaganda
• strategies for incorporating civics
instruction into subject areas other
than social studies.

28. CLOSE READING DIALOGUE & DISCUSSION CREATIVE EXPRESSION
Media Education Pedagogies

29. CLOSE READING
Students examine a media text and demonstrate their
comprehension of it by explaining key ideas in their own
words. They identify information about the author &
purpose to verify the accuracy of informational texts or
analyze how language, image and other techniques are
used to attract attention, arouse emotion, and convey
values in persuasive or entertaining texts.
Close reading helps learners recognize values,
ideologies, and diverse points of view
Parkhouse, H. (2018) Pedagogies of naming, questioning, and demystification: A study of two critical U.S. history Classrooms.
Theory & Research in Social Education, 46:2, 277-317, DOI: 10.1080/00933104.2017.1389327.

30. DIALOGUE & DISCUSSION
Students work in small groups to access examples of media
on a topic or issue of interest to them. They gather
information and share their interpretations with others,
reflecting on their strategic communication choices and
considering the potential benefits and/or harms of the
messages they selected and interpreted.
Discussion and dialogue builds intellectual
curiosity and helps learners develop trust, respect,
and a sense of belonging
Parkhouse, H. (2018) Pedagogies of naming, questioning, and demystification: A study of two critical U.S. history Classrooms.
Theory & Research in Social Education, 46:2, 277-317, DOI: 10.1080/00933104.2017.1389327.

31. CREATIVE EXPRESSION
Working alone or in a small group, students learn about a
topic or issue and then some form of media to represent
their understanding and communicate ideas. They may create
a slogan, logo, and other campaign materials including video,
meme, infographic or podcast, circulating their own
messages using their social network.
“Create to learn” activities help learners visualize
themselves as change agents
Henry, A. (2019). Online media creation and L2 motivation: A socially situated perspective. Tesol Quarterly, 53(2), 372-404.

32. Remix History
The Odyssey First Contact Gilded Age Politics

33. Measuring Media Literacy Implementation
Are Students Getting Instructional Opportunities?
Hobbs, R., Moen, M., Tang, R., & Steager, P. (2022). Measuring the implementation of media literacy instructional practices in schools: community stakeholder
perspectives. Learning, Media and Technology, 1-16.
ELEMENTARY GRADES K - 5
MIDDLE SCHOOL GRADES 6 - 8
MIDDLE SCHOOL GRADES 6 - 8
HIGH SCHOOL GRADES 9 - 12

35. PERSONALIZED MEDIA WORLDS

38. Lateral Reading for Verification

40. Brut. is a French media
company that creates
short-form video content
for audiences around the
world
Brut. publishes content
daily in three languages
and across eight social
platforms generating over
1.5 billion views a month.

41. 346
In 2023
Fear on the Rise

42. Fear on the Rise
An 18-year old boy kills 19 children and 2 teachers in an elementary school in Texas in 2022

43. Fear on the Rise
The 8th American mass shooting of 2023: Killer takes the lives of 18 people in a small rural community in Maine

44. Fear on the Rise
On a day of celebration in Kansas City, Lisa Lopez-Galvan is killed and 22 people are shot including 11 children

46. Media and digital platforms have numerous incentives
to showcase and celebrate violence

48. In an Attention Economy
Fueled by Hate

49. New Approaches
to Media Literacy
for Violence
Prevention are
Needed

50. GENERATIVE AI

51. Activate critical questions about media
to build the social responsibilities
of both creators & consumers

52. Artificial Intelligence, Media Literacy
& American Values
How can media literacy help us retain creativity
and critical thinking in an AI world?
Renee Hobbs
University of Rhode Island USA
Media Education Lab
Email: hobbs@uri.edu
Twitter: @reneehobbs