Blog Posts About: media literacy

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We want to help improve media literacy. One of the most important ideas to understand is bias, and how it impacts our perceptions. This video explains that bias isn't inherently bad, but can be a problem when it's hidden.

Building on the example of sports fans, this video illustrates how bias is a common and sometimes productive part of how we communicate. It also shows how bias can cause problems when it’s hidden or not detected. This video teaches:

• Why bias is a common and expected part of communicating
• Why high-quality information needs to be unbiased
• What problems occur when bias is ignored
• What to look for - common signs of bias in media

Watch it in full  (2m 38s)

Options for Using This Video

• This video is available for instant download with a forever license. $14.99 USD
• It's also part of the Common Craft video library. Join for access to downloading, embedding, and displaying the videos.

We now live in a world with increasing disinformation and misinformation. Nations, organizations, and individuals are using the media to spread false information that's designed to cause confusion and mistrust. While it's difficult to stop them, we can become more informed and help one another understand the phenomenon, how to detect it, and avoid it.

That's why we made a video that explains disinformation in about three minutes. The video is a fictional story of how one town uses disinformation to influence the other town. It provides a clear example that applies to today's environment.

Disinformation Explained by Common Craft

Your Options for Using This Video

• ​Watch and evaluate the full video for free, with a watermark.
• ​Join Common Craft to get the FULL library. Download, embed, or display our videos in your teaching, training, or other professional setting.
• ​Download this video right now with a "forever license" and use it as much as you want.

Disinformation is growing. By learning what it is, how to recognize it, and how to prevent it from spreading, we can stop disinformation from doing harm.

This video, 113th title, is now available in the Common Craft video library.

Watch it in full for a limited time.

What it Teaches:

This video illustrates the danger of disinformation, with a story of one community's use of a disinformation campaign to cause a rival community to vote against their own interests. It teaches:

• Why disinformation can work as a strategy
• Why disinformation is destructive and harmful to society
• How to recognize disinformation
• How to prevent disinformation from spreading

Watch the Video

Note: Each Common Craft video comes with a lesson plan that makes teaching easier. Curious? Download the lesson plan for the video above (PDF).

With so much information at our fingertips, it can be difficult to know what is trustworthy. A solid first step is understanding the differences between statements of fact and opinion.

This video, our 111th title, is now available in the Common Craft video library. You can watch it in full for a limited time.

What it Teaches:

Every day, we see both facts and opinions in media, education, and more. Being able to tell them apart is an important and powerful skill. Using multiple examples, this video explains the difference between facts and opinions, and how to use that information to your advantage. It teaches:

• How to recognize factual statements
• How to recognize statements of opinion
• Why factual statements can be true or false
• How to verify the accuracy of factual statements
• Why understanding facts and opinions matter in evaluating media

Watch the Video

Note: Each Common Craft video comes with a lesson plan that makes teaching easier. Curious? Download the lesson plan for the video above (PDF).

Do you know what represents Fair Use of copyrighted works? Our new video explains why Fair Use exists and how to avoid copyright infringement.

What it Teaches:

It’s more important than ever for students to understand intellectual property and how to avoid copyright infringement. By understanding Fair Use, students can avoid infringement and evaluate situations in which permission from the copyright holder is not likely to be required. It teaches:

• Why Fair Use exists and makes sense
• What it means when a use is “Fair”
• Four ways to evaluate whether a use is fair or not
• What represents transformative use
• What to do if you are unsure if your use is Fair Use

Watch the Video

Download this Video with a Forever License

For a limited time, this video is available with a forever license, which means you can purchase and download it without a Common Craft membership or recurring fees. The file is yours to use forever. Learn more. 

For a short time, we are offering a pack of Common Craft videos with a “forever license”.

This means you can download and use these Common Craft videos without a membership or recurring fees. Simply purchase the pack of videos and the videos are yours forever.

We’re getting started with a pack of four videos designed to help students find, evaluate and think critically about information they see online. This is the Media Literacy pack.

Evaluate all the videos, in-full, before purchase.

The Media Literacy pack is available for immediate download after purchase and includes:

• Standard MP4 version of these videos
• Standard MP4 version of these videos with open captions for the hearing impaired
• Lesson Plans for teaching the ideas covered in the videos

Licenses are available for both individual teachers and organizations.

If you have ideas for future packs of videos with the forever license, please let us know!