Matthew Johnson is the Director of Education for MediaSmarts, and he chats with Elizabeth about critical digital literacy. From house hippos to authenticating information online, Elizabeth and Matthew discuss functional and critical aspects of media and digital literacy. They talk about the skills required to use digital and media tools, and the “key concept approach” to digital literacy, and digital literacy in the context of democratic systems.

Additional Resources:

Check out Media Smarts’ overview of digital literacy fundamentals here. 

Matthew also discusses the 5 key concepts for Media Literacy which can be found on this page.

This article written by Gianfranco Polizzi addresses the importance of critical digital literacy for democracy.

Matthew refers to the Break the Fake campaign which teaches us how to tell what information is true online. And while you’re at it, don’t forget to reminisce over the House Hippo.

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French.