Audio Storytelling for Media & Information Literacy

a Discovery Core Experience

BCORE 117 (Arts & Humanities)

About This Course

In this course, we explore media and information literacy by focusing on real issues that almost all of us face: 

1. Managing addictions to devices and media, finding ways to pay attention in a world that is constantly trying to grab and monetize our attention, and trying to flourish in a hyper-commercialized media landscape of influencers, likes, impressions, etc.;
2. Navigating the unending firehose of information and media in our lives, and particularly navigating the perils of this information environment: misinformation, disinformation, conspiracy theories, hate speech, corporate PR spin, AI-generated content, etc.

That’s the “media and information literacy” part of the class title. We will learn about these issues and ways to respond to them. 

Weaving together personal storytelling and evidence-based arguments students will offer the audience a solution (or at least a resolution) to managing our addictions to (and navigating the firehose of) information and media in our lives.

Audio storytelling is the other part of the class title. That’s the media production part of the class. In order to respond to these major social-technological issues and to make sense of them in our personal lives, each student will produce an audio story in which they explore how they are affected by this issue and how they can respond to it. Weaving together personal storytelling and evidence-based arguments (meaning, ideas and perspectives informed by research), each student will educate an audience about this issue, connect with that audience using storytelling techniques, and offer the audience a solution or at least a resolution.

No media production experience is required. We will learn practical skills for audio storytelling, including the basics of audio recording, production, interviewing, script writing, and other parts of a media project. 

In addition, this course, like all Winter DCX courses, focuses on exploring UW Bothell’s community and resources in order to help students make connections with people and campus groups who have similar personal, academic, and professional goals. Want to start a business? Make art? Work toward social justice and a more equitable society? UWB has avenues to pursue all of these endeavors, and we will spend time exploring those paths, especially during the Pathways to Academic Engagement event that takes place during Winter quarter.

Professor Ian Porter (he/him/his)

School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences

About Professor Porter

Ian Porter is a teacher and librarian whose courses focus on the intersection of communication, information, culture, and democracy. In his free time, he loves hanging out with his wife and daughters, eating good food, and listening to good music on Seattle’s amazing local radio station KEXP.

Contact

Email: iporter@uw.edu