NU FAIRVIEW

MEDIA AND
INFORMATION
LITERACY

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WHAT WILL
YOU LEARN?

This module has been

designed to help you:

• use pertinent guide

questions leading to
information literacy;
• determine the importance
of proper data sourcing;
• validate information; and
• demonstrate ethical use
of information.

INFORMATION
LITERACY

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WHAT’S INSIDE
THIS
MODULE?

▪ Information Literacy
Stages/Elements of
Information Literacy
Ethical Use of Information
Basic Literacy
Cultural Literacy

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FOCUS
QUESTIONS
Stages/
❖ What are the
stages/elements of
information literacy?
Elements of
❖ How do we use
information ethically?
Information
❖ How and why do we
need to achieve basic
and cultural literacy?
Literacy
In an earlier CM, we focused our attention on media and its
evolution, as well as the types of media we encounter every
day. It’s now time to turn our attention to information
literacy and its stages. In this CM, we will also learn how
the different kinds of information must be ethically used, as
well as how important it is to be literate about the different
cultural groups that we belong to.

Suppose you and your circle of friends are planning to go

on a vacation in La Union. You have been saving a portion
of your respective allowances to gather as much money as
you can so you can enjoy as many locations and attractions
as possible. Your friend with an affinity for anything
extreme wants all of you to try Tangadan Falls, while one
of you who happens to be Tsinoy would like you to visit
the Ma-Cho Temple in San Fernando. Your Catholic friend,
on one end, is suggesting Luna Church, while your selfie-
hungry acquaintance would like to culminate your
adventure with a trip to Pebble Beach, so as to take an
Instagrammable groufie before heading back to the city.

The problem is, there are a lot of suggestions; hence, a lot of

information to process regarding which tourist destination
is convenient, which is safe, and most of all, which would
take less money to spend in order to enjoy the place. Aside
from the shabby nine-year-old travel brochure that your
mom handed you to help in your decision-making, you are
left with highly subjectively written blogs, half-baked
descriptions from what is supposed to be the website of the

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place’s tourism office, and repetitive content from YouTube
vloggers. If you only have these kinds of information to KEY POINT
support you in your most vital decisions, then it’s safe to
say that you are putting yourself in a gridlock.
To effectively discern the legitimacy
of the information that we read,
The Association of College and Research Libraries (2016)
watch, and listen to around us,
defines information literacy as a set of integrated abilities
there are certain stages that
encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the scholars recommend that we
understanding of how information is produced and valued undergo to achieve information
and the use of information in creating new knowledge and literacy.
participating ethically in communities of learning. To be
literate in information is to possess a particular set of skills
and to master the art of identifying, verifying, applying,
and sharing the facts, claims, and opinions you encounter
from traditional and digital/new media. What exactly are
those skills that these professionals pertain to?

Here is the ILESPT mnemonic to help you apply all these

stages the moment you entangle yourself again in webs of
facts, claims, and opinions.

Identify
Know what you need. Ask yourself questions such as,
“What would I like to know?”, or “What do I wish to
talk about?” Unless you want to become a walking lump
of gibberish, it is imperative that you identify the kind of
information you wish to acquire.

Locate
After knowing what you exactly need, you must now
identify where to find the information you wish to have
with you. Can you easily acquire them over the internet,
or do you have to visit a specific library, museum, or
talk to a particular expert just to access that information?

Evaluate
Now that you have the information that you need, how
exactly can you assure the legitimacy of what it contains,
how it was written, and how it was presented to its
intended audience? You need to check on four [4]
specific elements, which can be remembered with yet
another mnemonic, APRO (Torneo & Torneo, 2018):

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Which stage of information
literacy do you think is what
makes fake news a thorn on the
side of people who value
credibility and truth?
1st Term AY 2022-2023
A-uthor
Who wrote the material? On whose authority did the
information come from?
P-urpose
Why was the material produced? What is the author’s
intention to create it?
R-eliability
Is the information verified by credible sources? With
respect to the author’s credentials, was good research
done to validate the information s/he is sharing?
O-bjectivity
Is the material free from any biases? Was the
information written in a balanced point of view, if not
in a neutral tone? Does it attack another person or
malign a certain authority/institution?
Synthesize
Once you have verified the legitimacy of the information
you have, you can start combining the strong and weak
points of your references. There are various ways of
synthesizing and organizing your information (which is
taught in your RW classes, by the way) that will highly
depend on your need. If you wish to know the progress of
a particular concept, you can synthesize your information
chronologically. You can also do it topically/thematically,
or by arranging them from the broadest information (i.e.
the most generalized) to the narrowest (i.e. the most
detailed).
Present
With the clump of information now arranged to your
specific need, you need to make use of it according to the
original intention you laid out in the first step of the
process. Will you use it to help yourself settle a decision?
To help your younger sibling on her assignment? To inform
a neighbor who is drowning in the sea of fake news? To
help your parents understand a prevailing sociopolitical
issue? Take note that you have to present the information
in an ethical, effective way. Use it to advance a good and
honorable cause.
Translate
The last thing you now need to do is to share the newly-
compounded knowledge you have produced from
previous information, added with your own interpretation
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and understanding of those facts, claims, and
opinions. How will you share it? Will you be
creating information graphics (or “infographics”)
for it? A literature review to add to a research
study? An essay to submit to your writing
professor?

Now let’s have an example of how ILESPT is tackled.

Say you were tasked by your writing professor to
compose an essay on “vaccine hesitation” behavior
exhibited by certain parents. You have heard of the
“anti-vaxxer” movement throughout the news, and
suddenly you got extremely curious as to how they
developed their stand regarding kids getting fed with
SOURCE:
dead viruses into their bodies to test whether their https://www.acsh.org/news/2019/03/04/top-10-
immune systems will manage to fight it or not. Let’s pro-vaccine-or-anti-anti-vaxxer-memes-internet-
go over the possible steps you may take as you 13853)

investigate anti-vaxxers for your essays.

TOPIC: The philosophical stand of “anti-vaxxer”

parents
Why do some parents don’t want to
IDENTIFY get their children vaccinated?
Information regarding my topic will
be provided by:
1. personal insights of parents, as
well as
LOCATE 2. scientific studies on the long-term
effects of vaccines.
3. News reports may also be
included.
Interviews with parents
A – parents with first-hand
experiences on vaccines
P – to determine whether vaccines
are safe for their children
R – may come from hearsay and
rumors from other parents with bad
experiences on vaccines
O – information from them may be
EVALUATE in favor of their children’s safety,
disregarding the scientific objectives
as to how vaccines work

Scientific studies
A – professionals in the field of
medicine
P – to present findings based on
trials and experiments

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R – results come from a series of trials,
observations, etc. to ensure quality and
accuracy
O – depending on the nature of the study,
they usually release the studies for the general
public to read, interpret, and use as a basis
for everyday life

News reports
EVALUATE A – newscasters and journalists supported by
a team of researchers and in-field reporters
P – to bring latest information regarding the
truth behind vaccines linked to birth defects
R – may not be accurate depending on the
knowledge of the people they approach for
insights
O – may have biases depending on the
owner of the news organization
The information will be divided into two
groups of arguments:
- those who support vaccination for their
children
- those who do not support vaccination
because:
SYNTHESIZE -- it causes autism and growth defects
-- it violates the parents’ freedom of choice
for their children in terms of medical
treatment and disease prevention
-- too many vaccines in a child’s body will
weaken their immune systems instead of
improving it
The knowledge will be used to compose
PRESENT thoughts for an essay investigating the
vaccine hesitation of some parents.
The knowledge acquired from the synthesized
TRANSLATE information will be shared to the teacher
through the essay requested in Writing class.

We could also look at ILESPT in this way:

Identify

Locate

Evaluate

Synthesize

Present

Translate

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LEARNING ACTIVITY

Let us now check whether the ILESPT method is applicable

to the day-to-day encounters you have with information.
Below is a template of the table used in the example in the
previous page, and your objective is to create a situation
guide using a topic of your choice.

Pro tip: The more specific the topic you give, the more
detailed your approach to the stages of information literacy
will be.

TOPIC:

IDENTIFY

LOCATE

EVALUATE

SYNTHESIZE

PROCESS

TRANSLATE

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KEY POINT

There are times when we

Ethical Use
need to attribute information
from other sources to prove
our points. To avoid being
accused of plagiarism, we can
of Information
quote, interpret, or
paraphrase that information. Copied brands by counterfeiters proliferate around the
world, especially in China. The Chinese’s blatant disrespect to
copyright laws (which you will encounter in a future CM)
give them a hand to simply copy trademark after trademark
and let them pass into the uninquisitive buyer’s eye as “legit”,
so spoke teenagers belonging to Generation Z.

Unbeknownst to many, patronizing counterfeits definitely do

more harm than good to the economy, because profiteers will
exploit the cheap labor they can get in producing these
counterfeits, at the expense of underpaid, untended
“sweatshop” laborers, who literally work to death for a hefty
wage. The next time you pick up that shoe at a dubious swap
meet/tiangge, think of the people who toiled their sweat for
you to be provided of a good pair (or not).

Just like counterfeit shoes, shirts, and stuff, counterfeiting

information, as well as stealing ideas from others, is the last
thing we would want to do as people who possess
information literacy. This situation highlights the importance
of knowing the ethical use of information, especially of those
that we did not produce. As we are not experts in all fields of
information that we encounter (even experts still continue
enhancing their mastery), we will sometimes lean on the
guidance and wisdom of those who came before us, and use
their exact words (or parts of it) to convey our messages and
arguments to others.

The last things we want to be accused of are plagiarism (an

ethical issue), and copyright infringement (a legal issue,
which you will encounter in a later CM) in the content we
produce for ourselves for non-commercial/personal, and
commercial/professional purposes. And to avoid those two,
there are the three measures you can employ.

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A. Quoting

Quoting is directly using the words of the original author

to be used in a later work. This is generally used in
technical, and even creative writing when “the exacts words
of the author explains everything we want to say” (Calderon
& Gonzales, 1993). The previous sentence of this paragraph
is your first example of a quotation for this CM, as the
authors’ words emphasizes why we have the tendency to
borrow words from other people. Quotation is best for
defining complex terms, such as theories, and abstract ideas,
or when describing a certain person, object, or event in a
more personal instance.
When quoting, never forget to use the quotation marks [“ “]
to refer to the exact words of your reference.

Reported quotation:
According to actress Elizabeth Taylor during the 1989
Soul Train Music Awards, Michael Jackson is “in my
estimation, [he is] the true king of pop, rock, and
soul.”

Cited quotation:
“In my estimation, he is the true king of pop, rock,
and soul. Mr. Michael Jackson.” (Taylor, 1989)

This example used the APA style of citation. When your

teacher/supervisor asks you to use a particular style of
citation (APA, MLA, CMS), use it. The style will depend
on the nature of the information you’re citing.

B. Interpretation

To interpret information (say, quantitative data) is to give

one’s estimated take on a pool of information that pertains
to a particular topic. It is a good way of introducing
knowledge which are not generally known. This is usually
done with compilations of scientific studies that may have
varying results through a series of trials, or a series of
different studies. This can also be applicable with statistics,
such as statistics of sports personalities (i.e. athletes) in
terms of scores/points garnered, games/matches played
throughout the athlete’s career, championships won (be it
league, national, or international), and even the number of
accolades received from credible authorities. In other words,
your interpretation is a kind of conclusion based on certain
facts.
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e.g. Cristiano Ronaldo is a Portuguese football player who has

received the following championships and accolades:
SOURCE:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Cristiano_Ronaldo#/media/
File:Euro_2016_
Cristiano_Ronaldo.jpg
- the UEFA Champions League (the highest club
football competition in Europe) 5x, the first football
player to do so
- the English Premier League (the highest club
football competition in England) 3x
- the La Liga Championship (the highest club
football competition in Spain) 2x
- the Serie A Trophy (the highest club football
competition in Italy) 2x
- the FIFA Club World Cup (the highest club football
competition in the world) 4x
- appeared in the FIFA World Cup 4x, representing
Portugal
- appeared in the UEFA European Championships
(the highest national competition in Europe) 4x,
winning it once, representing Portugal
- the Ballon d’Or (awarded to the best male football
player in the world) 5x
- the UEFA Best Men’s Player of the Year Award (the
best player in Europe) 2x
- appeared in 162 games representing Portugal
- appeared in more than 850 games representing
football clubs such as Sporting CP (Portugal),
Manchester United (England), Real Madrid (Spain),
and Juventus (Italy), scoring 638 goals

For you to express these figures to someone who does not have
any knowledge about football (maybe because they prefer
watching fast-paced sports like basketball or volleyball), you
will have to interpret them by giving a generalized impression
of someone whose accolades are as many (and grandiose) as
this. A possible interpretation for the given information above
is:

Cristiano Ronaldo is the best football player of the 21st

century, and one of the best of all time.

C. Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is generally defined as the restatement of a

given fact/claim using the writer’s own words. Compared to
citation, paraphrasing requires a more personal approach in
stating facts and claims (but never opinions). And somewhat

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similar to interpretation, paraphrased information can be

written formally or informally, depending on who needs it,
and is also good for explaining complex facts and claims
without giving too much information; it is your
responsibility to break the complex terms down into
layman’s terms, as much as possible.

Read the two paragraphs below and observe their

construction:

Original:
“1The debt-to-equity (D/E) ratio is calculated by
dividing a company’s total liabilities by its shareholder
equity. 2These numbers are available on the balance Sentence count: 6
sheet of a company’s financial statements. 3The ratio is
used to evaluate a company's financial leverage. The manner of acquiring the
4The D/E ratio is an important metric used in corporate debt-to-equity ratio is
finance. 5It is a measure of the degree to which a introduced first. Afterwards,
company is financing its operations through debt the importance of knowing
versus wholly owned funds. 6More specifically, it reflects such value for the company is
the ability of shareholder equity to cover all elaborated.
outstanding debts in the event of a business
downturn.” (Investopedia, n.d.)

Paraphrased:
1According to Investopedia, the debt-to-equity ratio of Sentence count: 3
a company is the result of dividing its total amount of
debts with the amount that the shareholders contribute The definition has been given
to finance the company and keep it running. 2Knowing in layman terms. Most of the
the D/E (as it is abbreviated) of a company is importance of knowing D/E
important, as it is used to determine how well a has been condensed to avoid
company allocates funds to the different aspects that wordiness and confusion.
it runs. 3More importantly, D/E is the indicator of the Also, the reference at the end
company’s financial security; it tells shareholders the of the original sentence has
capability of the company to pay its debts if in case been done as reported
something wrong happens. citation instead of the
referential style to give it a
There are times when facts are found in numerous places reader-friendly approach.
and are likely to be widely known. In this instance, it
becomes common knowledge and you do not need to
document this fact anymore. However, as a rule, in citation,
interpretation, and paraphrasing, you still have to properly
cite the source that supports your statement. This is to avoid
plagiarism, which is the use of other people’s words and
ideas without proper acknowledgment. This is also to
preserve your academic integrity which is something that
you have to preserve as a lifelong learner.
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LEARNING ACTIVITY

Using the different ethical usages of information, your

objective is to list at least three (3) of the most vital
information that you can give regarding the topics below.
Afterwards, identify what kind of ethical usage it is. A sample
answer is given for your guidance.

Solar Energy as alternative to Environmental Impact of

non-renewable sources of
energy for vehicles
1.
using Palm Oil
1. The palm oil industry
expansion in African forests
has little effect on the habitat
of primates (i.e. monkeys,
chimpanzees, etc.), compared
to Southeast Asian forests.
(CIRAD, 2018) -
Interpretation

2.
2.

3.
3.

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KEY POINT
Basic and To be culturally literate is to be
conscious of the different conventions of

Cultural a particular culture and be able to

participate within such culture without
giving offense to any of their unique

Literacy customs and systems.

Humor, they say, is a vital ingredient that makes the

total character of a person. A person without a sense of
humor is considered plain, boring, and rigid. On the
other hand, a person with a bad sense of humor is
considered crude and painful to listen to.

Laughter, which is the end product of humor, is

universal. But as much as laughing with people is free,
there are some things that we should mind when we
are talking with people with whom we don’t share the
same level of understanding, the same level of social
stature, and more importantly, the same culture. As
Omid Djalili said in the 2008 Royal Variety Show,
“From the Middle East, we don’t know much about
comedy. We don’t even know basic joke construction.
Like for you, an Englishman, an Irishman, a Scotsman,
that’s a joke. To us, that’s a hostage situation!” Simply
put, different people laugh at different things, and
especially if they come from vastly different parts of
the globe. This is where cultural literacy comes in.

Cultural literacy is a term coined by the American

schoolteacher E.D. Hirsch, Jr., in 1987. He explains the
concept as the ability to understand and participate
fluently in a given culture (1987). Compared to basic
literacy, which is the ability to read, write, and
understand the words, grammar, and discourse of a
particular language, to be culturally literate is to be
able to read, write, and understand in the context of
other cultures, such as their unique signs and
symbols, be able to relate to their stories, laugh or cry
at their brand of entertainment, use their idioms
smoothly (like a native would), and be able to relate to
historical events of the country who owns the culture.

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Simply put, all of us who are engaged with this CM are

literate in the English language, but not all of us may be
literate with English, or generally, British culture. (And no,
British culture is not just about Spice Girls, Harry Potter,
darts, Titanic, or tea and crumpets.)

Being literate about a particular culture will prevent you

from giving offensive, stereotypical, prejudicial, and/or
racist remarks regarding the culture you’re trying to
immerse yourself into. For example, Filipino-Chinese
relations are perceived to be increasingly sour because of
Chinese intrusion in the West Philippine Sea, but it cannot
also be denied that we have traded peacefully with them for
hundreds of years and imbibed of their culture and vice
versa. Or, to put it in another way, we have traded
peacefully with our Chinese neighbors for hundreds of
years, yet we cannot deny that the mainland Chinese
flocking to the Philippines increases our worries about their
intrusion in our territories. In other words, cultural literacy is
being sensitive to the nuances of each culture we encounter,
be it from the city, the town, or the island next to yours. Even
in the Philippine islands, we could do a lot more with being
culturally literate and sensitive instead of letting our
stereotypes and generalizations get free rein when we talk
with people from places far from our own.

For an overseas friend of yours

to be culturally literate about
the Philippines, what are the
Top 5 things they must
understand about us?

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LEARNING ACTIVITY
How 2 B U?
Fill out the table below with some of the aspects about
which you can be literate in a certain Philippine culture.
Some examples are provided for your guidance.
Remember, if you are using resources aside from your
personal understanding, never forget to cite your
references!

ASPECT/
Panayanon Bikolano Maranao
CULTURE
Holidays, “uragon”
Identities, and (‘can-do’)
Traditions mentality

Entertainment

Prominence
Sports of football
in Iloilo
people of the
lake;
financially
Literature,
richer than
and Symbols
other ethnic
groups in
Mindanao

History

Music

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LEARNING OUTPUT

To culminate this CM, you are now asked to give your own
interpretation of the different effects that the media has on
people and the institutions they belong to. Watch this short
video about the four (4) Media Effects. Once you have
finished the video, your objective is to compose a
poster/sketch regarding these effects and how they directly
impact their target audiences.

Be guided by this question:

In view of the effects that media has on us as media consumers,

how do we become more literate in accessing, using, evaluating,
sharing, and valuing information?

The following criteria will be considered for grading:

To learn more of the UNESCO

framework in MIL, click this link:
https://en.unesco.org/MILCLICKS

Practice makes for

proficiency!

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SUMMARY

What are the stages/elements of

information literacy?
The stages of information include Identify, Locate,
Evaluate, Synthesize, Present, and Translate. Each
of these stages must be undergone to be sure that we
are meticulous and careful in processing information.
KEY TERMS

How do we use information ethically?

There is no one definite answer. However, there are Academic integrity
ways by which we can ensure that we use information as Author
ethically as possible. We can cite, interpret, and
paraphrase information that is not part of common Basic literacy
knowledge. Cultural literacy
Common knowledge
How and why do we need to achieve Copyright infringement
basic and cultural literacy? Evaluate
We achieve basic and cultural literacy by taking care to Identify
be informed and aware of cultural norms in certain
Information literacy
places and self-examining whatever preconceptions or
prejudices we might have to avoid stereotyping and Interpretation
racism.
Locate
Objectivity
Paraphrasing
Plagiarism
Present
Purpose
Quotation
Reliability
Synthesize
Translate

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References

Association of College & Research Libraries. (2016). Framework for Information Literacy.
Retrieved from Association of College & Research Libraries:
http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/issues/infolit/framework1.pdf
Bryant, S. (2019, April 1). WHEN and HOW to use to humor across cultures. Retrieved from
Country Navigator: https://countrynavigator.com/blog/cultural-intelligence/humor-
across-cultures/
Calderon, F., & Gonzales, E. (1993). Methods of Research & Thesis Writing. Mandaluyong City:
National Book Store.
Hirsch, E. J. (1987). Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin.
Investopedia. (n.d.). What is Debt-To-Equity Ratio? (D/E). Retrieved from Investopedia:
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/debtequityratio.asp
Taylor, E. (1989, April 13). 1989 Soul Train Music Awards. Los Angeles, California, USA.
Torneo, A. R., & Torneo, H. C. (2018). Practical Research 2, Second Edition. Quezon City: SIBS
Publishing House.
University of Southern California. (n.d.). What Exactly is Information Literacy and What Role
Does It Play in Education. Retrieved from Library and Information Science Online
Degree Programs: https://librarysciencedegree.usc.edu/blog/what-exactly-is-
information-literacy-and-what-role-does-it-play-in-education/

CONTRIBUTORS

Mark Ashley C. Banta

Roselle Lyn P. Bautista

Nestor Jr. P. De Asis

Justine Daniel R. Gabuni

Maryan Joy C. Lopez

Shiela Mae Malesido

Renelyn O. Manacho

Shienna G. Marquez

Ma. Carmie Flor I. Ortego

Jaycel Anne B. Panday

Venice Jastine E. Paras

Mark Daniel H. Racoma

Kim Ricardo

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