Curriculum, learning and teaching
One of the examples discussed by students was a YouTube clip of comedy character Ali G interviewing Noam Chomsky
More power to questions! How does an age of 24/7 news and ‘post-truth’ affect teaching, asks Smita Raghavan Shetty
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to understand their choice of media in preparation for a lesson on language and mass communication. Even though I expected it, I still felt a sense of discomfort to find that none of the students accessed print media, and that all their news was gathered from social media. I realised that the stage was set for post-truth to become highly influential as news would not be accepted if it did not promise to entertain. The age of ‘infotainment’ functions by blurring the lines between hard facts and entertainment through embellishing ‘boring’ news with colourful rumours in an attempt to make it more agreeable for the consumption of a wider audience. While I considered the unrealistic and improbable option of placing controls on media, I realised that I could achieve more as a teacher only by trying to make my students self-reliant – to be critical thinkers. Enabling students to think critically is enabling them to be more aware, to recognise implicit assumptions, to form Autumn |
Spring
‘Post-truth’ or ‘post factual truth’ is largely considered to be a contemporary issue. In the age of the internet, the 24/7 news cycle, and the dominance of social media, it is clearly more apparent and high profile now than it ever was before. The Brexit referendum, the US presidential election, and the environmental politics of climate change have all launched it into the media. Oxford Dictionaries declared that their international word of the year in 2016 was ‘post-truth’, citing a 2,000% increase in usage compared to 2015 (Flood, 2016). So, what are the features of post-truth? Its essential characteristics are the repetition of false claims, applying an emotional tone and using rhetoric to move an audience, and encouraging an aversion to facts, research and expertise. This cultivates a hatred of intellectual discourse. So how does this socio-political environment affect my teaching? At the beginning of the school year, I conducted a survey to explore my students’ reading habits. This was an attempt
| 2017
