KT Lowe

KT Lowe

Fact-checking in a time of crisis

Fact-checking in a time of crisis

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When major world events occur, facts can become harder to come by.  In a media climate where 53% of Americans get their news from social media, it is imperative that we as a society learn how to find good quality information when international conflicts can interrupt the flow of news coverage.  Here are some tips on how to stay informed. Double check images. Images are harder to check than text – they require extra effort to decipher their meaning and accuracy, and many people are more willing to believe fake news when there is a visual component.  Fake news sites will capitalize on fear and outrage by reusing images from older events or other locations that are unrelated to the … Continued
Black Contemporary Science Fiction

Black Contemporary Science Fiction

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In the wake of Octavia Butler’s groundbreaking work in the 1970s, including the Patternfinder series and Kindred, Black science fiction has taken on social justice, culture and history to create one of the freshest and most exciting art forms in contemporary literature.  In this blog, we’ll explore some of the biggest names in the field, covering everything from magical realism to postapocalyptic fiction. Nnedi Okorafor Dr. Okorafor was born in Cincinnati to parents of Nigerian descent,and grew up in Illinois.  Her writing career began with tragedy when an operation for scoliosis left her paralyzed from the waist down.  While recovering, a friend loaned her a copy of the Isaac Asimov classic I, Robot, which Okorafor marked up with notations in … Continued
Misinformation and fake news in 2022

Misinformation and fake news in 2022

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2022 has begun and fake news continues. To help reduce misinformation in one’s news diet, your IU East Campus Librarians have some tips. Skip the memes How do you know that meme is real?  Sure, it’s got a goofy picture on it and says things you agree with, but that doesn’t make it truthful.  Memes communicate lots of different kinds of information, not all of which is easily categorizable, according to Molloy College professor Jamie Cohen.  In a meme, context is everything, which isn’t always communicable or understandable to a broad audience.  Memes may also serve as a form of folklore, in that they are transmitted person-to-person.  Memes and folklore, including folk stories, share a lot in common, particularly in … Continued
Early American protest music

Early American protest music

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What’s a protest song? According to musicologist David King Dunaway, a protest song functions more as a mode for a message, rather than a distinct art form itself.  “It is not popular music… it is not per se folk music…the field of political music includes everything from an electoral song of the 1730s to a punk-rock protest of the 1980s,” he observed in 1987. That means there are a lot of different songs that qualify as protest songs, and we’ll take a brief look at some of the very earliest American protest songs ever written. Yankee Doodle Written around 1755 by a British doctor, Richard Schuckburgh, “Yankee Doodle” has a rather interesting and perhaps unintentionally hilarious history. Although an author … Continued
Digital Gardening: A new way to think about digital literacy

Digital Gardening: A new way to think about digital literacy

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Most of us know the basics of gardening – tilling the soil, digging holes, adding plants, weeding, watering.  It’s a useful metaphor, however, for other subjects and ways of thinking, and IU has done just that.  Digital gardening is a method of instill digital literacy and digital competency in students, starting with their very first semester on campus.  On October 1, IU East librarians KT Lowe and Beth South participated in the Digital Gardener Summit, a day-long workshop addressing digital gardening and how it can be infused into a classroom curriculum. Digital literacy incorporates a number of ideas related to understanding media.  Not only does it include fact-checking fake news, deepfake videos and memes, but also a greater understanding regarding … Continued