{"id":30951,"date":"2021-11-20T21:57:26","date_gmt":"2021-11-21T02:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/?page_id=30951"},"modified":"2023-12-07T10:07:25","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T15:07:25","slug":"language-of-the-21st-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/language-of-the-21st-century\/","title":{"rendered":"Language of the 21st Century"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Language of the 21st<\/sup> Century: Words & Phrases Your Students Need to Know
\nby Frank W Baker (to be published Jan 2022)<\/p>\n

Metaverse? Prebunking? Participatory Disinformation?
\nDo these words and phrases look familiar to you?\u00a0 They didn\u2019t to me. But I encountered them while reading the news. After \u201clooking them up,\u201d I wondered how many of us know what they mean. (See their definitions at the bottom of this blogpost.)<\/p>\n

I was a late adopter to owning a mobile phone. So, when I heard a commercial mention \u201croaming\u201d all I could think about was that line from the song \u201cHome On The Range\u201d (\u201c<\/em>give me a home where the buffalo roam<\/em>\u201d<\/em>). What was roaming, I asked? Now that I own a phone, I know.<\/p>\n

When you consider the new media and technology that have come into our lives, no doubt there was new vocabulary you and your students had to get accustomed to knowing and using.<\/p>\n

The computer had \u201ca mouse.\u201d \u00a0Mobile phones and tablets now have \u201capps.\u201d Television and related devices employ DVRs (digital video recorders). Many of us are fans of \u201cstreamers\u201d.<\/p>\n

The introduction of new media and technology offer additional opportunities to add words and phrases to our students\u2019 vocabulary.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, I recently began to post a weekly media literacy word or phrase of the week on my Facebook page (https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/medialitman<\/a>) and on my Twitter feed (@fbaker).<\/p>\n

Many of these become part of our popular culture vernacular perhaps without us even understanding their exact meaning.<\/p>\n

Timely words and phrases<\/u>
\nWith the start of the pandemic, we were introduced to words\/phrases like \u201ccontact tracing,\u201d \u201cinfodemic,\u201d \u201csuper spreader,\u201d and \u201clong-haulers\u201d—words and phrases that were used frequently in the news.<\/p>\n

At the same time, because I have been a long-time media literacy advocate, I wanted educators (and their students) to be aware of some common media literacy terms that may or may not appear in your state\u2019s teaching standards.\u00a0 Here I am referring to bias,
\ntechniques of persuasion, propaganda, stereotypes, and representation, among many others.<\/p>\n

Incorporating words and phrases into instruction<\/u>
\nOn the Media Literacy Word\/Phrase of The Week web page<\/a> where I post weekly, I offer educators this advice:
\n– introduce the word\/phrase
\n– challenge students to research the meaning of the word\/phrase
\n– have them locate the word\/phrase in a recent news story<\/p>\n

Obviously, you don\u2019t have to use THIS week\u2019s word or phrase. Choose any word and decide when and where it would be appropriate to use with your students.<\/p>\n

Different groups employ their own words\/phrases<\/u><\/p>\n

Many middle grades educators have recently spent a great deal of their time helping students understand \u201cfake news,\u201d \u201cconspiracy theory,\u201d \u201cdisinformation,\u201d \u201cmisinformation,\u201d and \u201cnews literacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every year, during the TV and film awards seasons, I begin to see, hear and read commonly used words and phrases.\u00a0 Examples here include \u201cfor your consideration,\u201d showrunner, and artistic license.<\/p>\n

During the election time of year, journalists and broadcasters employ phrases like \u201chorse race,\u201d \u201cdark money,\u201d \u201cbattleground states,\u201d direct-mail, and stagecraft.<\/p>\n

The advertising industry is one that often employs \u201cinsider\u201d terminology.\u00a0 Examples include: upfronts, \u201cbehavioral targeting,\u201d influencers, \u201cdark advertising,\u201d demographics and \u201cproduct placement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The advancements in technology have introduced us to \u201cartificial intelligence,\u201d deepfakes, ransomware, algorithm, \u201cfacial recognition,\u201d \u201cnet neutrality,\u201d \u201ctwitter bots\u201d and much more.<\/p>\n

What words\/phrases do you want students to know?<\/u>
\nNo doubt you may have your own words or phrases you want students to know and understand.<\/p>\n

It is my hope that you will consider engaging your students in any one of the weekly posted words and phrases on my web page.
\n——————————————————————–
\nMetaverse: \u201ca virtual-reality space in which users can interact with a computer-generated environment and other users.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prebunking: \u201cthe process of debunking lies, tactics, or sources before they strike\u201d<\/p>\n

Participatory Disinformation: the process through which disinformation is spread through groups, technology and people<\/p>\n

————————————————————————-<\/p>\n

Frank Baker has been contributing to Middleweb for more than 10 years. (If you\u2019re just now discovering his posts and \u201cmedia literacy\u201d, he invites you to read more of his columns\/<\/a>posts<\/a> as well as his web site, the Media Literacy Clearinghouse<\/a>.)\u00a0 He is the author of \u201cClose Reading The Media\u201d<\/a> a collaboration with Middleweb and Routledge publishers. He estimates he has conducted hundreds of media literacy workshops with K-12 teachers in more than 20 years of work. Contact him at fbaker1346@gmail.com<\/a> and follow him on Twitter: @fbaker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Language of the 21st Century: Words & Phrases Your…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30951"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30953,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30951\/revisions\/30953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frankwbaker.com\/mlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}