Building Resilient Communities

MEDIA LITERACY AND CRITICAL THINKING ONLINE CERTIFICATION COURSE

Fake News. Misinformation. Click Bait.

Citizens of the United States face an unprecedented level of access to information, and it’s not always easy to tell the difference between reliable information and faulty, misleading information. Current and future generations must learn the necessary skills to navigate the complex web of news stories, data points, and social media posts that inform our daily lives. Otherwise, they risk being misled at best or radicalized to commit violent acts at worst. In fact, several recent mass casualty events were committed by people who were radicalized by online messaging.

Central Florida is not immune from these tragedies, but we can become more resilient, starting right here at the local level. This program invites Central Florida’s educators, law enforcement personnel, and other civic leaders to engage with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University professors and to co-opt pedagogical tools and methods that increase awareness of misinformation and the recruiting methods of extremist organizations, challenge violence mobilization narratives, and increase the capabilities of our community to resist and counter extremist online messaging.

Participants of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Building Resilient Communities’ Media Literacy and Online Critical Thinking Seminar will identify problematic online and media messages that could lead to radicalization and critically evaluate the problematic assumptions, data, or logic of those messages, allowing them to develop strategies to increase community awareness and resilience among the populations they serve.

This project is partially funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, opportunity number DHS-22-TTP-132-00-01