Break the Fake: How to tell what's true online
Here are four quick and easy steps to find out the truth and share good information. Sometimes you only have to do one of these things, and most steps take less than a minute.
Using Fact-Checking Tools
Sometimes a single search can break the fake, if a professional fact-checker like Snopes has already done the work for you.
Speaking & Media Requests
MediaSmarts is home to trusted experts in the field of digital literacy and media literacy. Below, you can find a list of MediaSmarts experts available to comment on current affairs and trending topics in the media, or to book for select speaking engagements.
Digital Literacy 101
While MediaSmarts’ research shows that teachers place considerable importance on teaching their students digital literacy skills such as authenticating information, managing privacy, addressing cyberbullying, and being safe online, evidence suggests this is not reflected in Canadian classrooms. The intent of these resources is to support teachers in implementing digital literacy into their teaching practice and to help them to develop digital literacy lessons and activities that suit their students' needs.
Media Literacy 101
Media educators base their teaching on key concepts of media literacy, which provide an effective foundation for examining mass media and popular culture. These key concepts act as filters that any media text has to go through in order for us to respond.
#ForYou: A Game About Algorithms
#ForYou is a card-based pattern-matching game that helps youth aged 13 to 18 understand the role that algorithms play in their online and offline lives, and the value of their personal information to companies that use those algorithms. The game is designed to be delivered either in school or in community spaces such as homework or coding clubs.
Poynter partners with MediaSmarts to launch the Teen Fact-Checking Network in Canada
March 11, 2024 - MediaWise, the Poynter Institute’s media literacy initiative, is partnering with MediaSmarts, a Canadian non-profit organization, to launch North America’s second
Corporate Partnerships
MediaSmarts relies on the support of our partners to help us achieve our vision of empowering people to engage with all forms of media confidently and critically.
Media Literacy for the 2024 Provincial General Election in British Columbia
This lesson package is designed to be modular, allowing teachers to choose activities that are most relevant to their students. The lesson includes: an opening “minds on” activity that introduces essential concepts of election-related misinformation, helps students retrieve prior knowledge, and shows the relevance of the topic; several activities which teachers can choose from based on the needs and context of their classes; a closing activity that introduces students to different strategies for verifying election-related information, including the idea of turning to a best single source (in this case, Elections BC). They then learn and practice engaging in active citizenship by responding to election-related disinformation.