Constructing Meaning Online: Teaching Critical Reading in a Post-Truth Era

Abstract

Changes in technology and reading habits over the last decade have ushered in a new informational landscape. The Internet has become the central means by which children and adults form understandings of the world. Since readers on the Internet choose from a nearly unlimited selection of websites, they play a more active role in determining which ideas they encounter. These shifts in technology have been accompanied by shifts in culture and politics which have led to a post-truth era in which “identity [determines] how people respond to texts” (Janks, 2018, p. 98). While there is ample pedagogical literature addressing online reading, few resources exist for preparing students to navigate online in the post-truth era. Utilizing tools drawn from critical literacy, this article builds on new literacies pedagogies by introducing instructional strategies that help students attend to the ways in which their own culturally-situated viewpoints influence the meanings they make online.