Overview
Have you ever seen a social media post that's full of passion and emotion about a current news topic, but there's just something that doesn't feel right or genuine about it?
Performative social media activism
is activism that evokes strong emotions in people eager to share messages — and sometimes misinformation — that matches their beliefs around politically-charged issues.
In this lesson, you will evaluate and consider bias in online content that is being used for personal gain or popularity as opposed to real support for the issue.
Objectives
Students will be able to answer the following questions:
- What is performative social media activism?
- How can you recognize performative bias in social media posts?
Supplemental Links
Standards
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Common Core
9-10.RH.1. Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.
ELA-LITERACY.RH.7-12.6 Evaluate authors’ differing points of view on the same historical event or issue by assessing the authors’ claims, reasoning, and evidence.
KEY VOCABULARY
- Performative social media activism — a mode of activism used to increase one's social capital or personal gain rather than genuine support or criticism toward a movement, issue or cause
- " Slacktivism" — the practice of supporting a political or social cause by means such as social media or online petitions, characterized as involving very little effort or commitment
- Bias — the action of supporting or opposing a particular person or thing in an unfair way, because of allowing personal opinions to influence your judgment
- Reading upstream — navigate directly to the primary source as opposed to reading other second-hand pieces about the topic (Stanford History Education Group)
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Warm-up : What news organization do you think is the most unbiased?
Type the name of the news organization into the AdFontes Media Interactive Media Bias Chart to see if it leans left, center or right. Check other news organizations to see which way they lean.
Watch the MediaWise Teen-Fact Checking Network (TFCN) video and answer the following questions:
- What are three ways an article referenced in a social media post can be checked for media bias?
- What was the original source of information about the XBox that was found through reading upstream ?
DIG DEEPER
- What elements make the tweet used in the video an example of performative social media activism and why are these types of posts more likely to go viral?
- How do performative political social media posts encourage “slacktivism” and spread misinformation?
ACTIVITY
Time to put your media bias checking skills to the test. Choose a current event or topic. Do a Google search with a 3-4-word keyword search phrase and find three search results that reflect a left-leaning, right-leaning and moderate bias using the media literacy skills you learned in this lesson.
Note your findings in the table in the activity worksheet located in the supplemental links.
