Media Critical Analysis

 

Media Critical Analysis

Making use of information in an appropriate and effective manner is the skill that can decide about success not only at school but also in professional life and many typical everyday situations. This skill consist in: retrieving information from the sources of a different type (the Internet, books, textbooks, newspapers, movies, radio broadcasts, and illustrations) in a fast manner; distinguishing reliable from unreliable, false or misleading information; efficient collection and storage of acquired material in order to be able easy access it at any time; finally using the obtained information in currently realized tasks.

 

Tasks

1

What can you learn from an article Christopher Kolumbski, the story of King Władysław on the distant island on historical research? According to the author, who can be considered a competent historian?

a. To which group of historians does Rafał Jaworski (author of the article) belong to? How can this be determined?

2

Why, according to the author of the article, should not the book by Manuel Rosa ("Columbus. Unknown history") be regarded as a reliable source of historical information?

3

Based on the article that you have read, point out elements that allow considering the material of a different nature (books, articles, WebPages) as a reliable source of historical information.

4

Take a look at portraits of Christopher Columbus and Wladyslaw of Varna attached to the article. Can they constitute the material that allows confirming kinship between the great explorer and the Polish king? Why?

a. What elements can be used to assess the usefulness of illustrations (painting, portrait, and drawing) as a reliable source of historical information?

b. Which of the illustrations included in the article may provide a reliable source of information about Christopher Columbus or Wladyslaw of Varna?

c. Try to search out the images that can provide a reliable source of information about Christopher Columbus and Władysław of Varna (the images should meet the criteria presented in the previous parts of this module) in the German, British, Swedish, Spanish articles proposed by the teacher or on the Internet.

d. Take part in the discussion and justify your opinion: Is it possible to determine any similarities or kinship between Christopher Columbus and Wladyslaw of Varna based on the illustrative material gathered in this task?

5

Present your position in the discussion: After reading the article by Rafał Jaworski, are you interested in reading the book M. Rosa? Why should or should not this book be reached for?

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Media Critical Analysis

Making use of information in an appropriate and effective manner is the skill that can decide about success not only at school but also in professional life and many typical everyday situations. This skill consist in: retrieving information from the sources of a different type (the Internet, books, textbooks, newspapers, movies, radio broadcasts, and illustrations) in a fast manner; distinguishing reliable from unreliable, false or misleading information; efficient collection and storage of acquired material in order to be able easy access it at any time; finally using the obtained information in currently realized tasks.

The following activities support the development of media and information competences in students. The material from popular historical magazine, in this case, is a pretext for educating students on the competences of critical evaluating sources of information not only of historical nature. Analogously to the case of the historical article, students will be able to subject any multi-media material (also available on the Internet) to evaluation and criticism. Nevertheless, in the course of the following exercises, students will be familiarized with the most important basics of the work of a historian and methodology of historical research.

 

Tasks

1

What can you learn from an article Christopher Kolumbski, the story of King Władysław on the distant island on historical research? According to the author, who can be considered a competent historian?

Methodological remarks: the task can be realized individually or in groups of two.
Solution to the task: The author of the article distinguishes professional historians (who have a higher university diploma in history) and amateur historians who have no educational background but they are working in this field of science by means of self-education and conducting independent research. Both professional and amateur historians can be considered competent if they carry on studies reliably according to the principles of the historical research (p. 23).


a. To which group of historians does Rafał Jaworski (author of the article) belong to? How can this be determined?

Solution to the task: Rafał Jaworski is a professional historian, an employee of the Jan Kochanowski University. This can be determined based on the author biographical note shown at the end of the article.

2

Why, according to the author of the article, should not the book by Manuel Rosa ("Columbus. Unknown history") be regarded as a reliable source of historical information?

Methodological remarks: the task can be realized in small groups of two or more.
Solution to the task: The author of the article cites many arguments that in his opinion disqualify the book by M. Rosa as a reliable source of historical information:

- M. Rosa's book does not have a sound scientific apparatus: the footnotes are placed at random; the most important sources that were used by the author are not stated (p. 23);

- M. Rosa incorrectly analyzes historical sources. He is not able to perform critical evaluation of the sources in terms of the credibility of their authors (p. 23);

- He adjusts the interpretation of the source in order to align it with a predetermined thesis;

- He draws far-reaching conclusions on the basis of scanty and very general information, for instance: the image of a bird on the Columbus’ ring is connected directly with an eagle emblem of Poland; physical characteristic features of Columbus as hair colour or eye are used as proof of his Slavic genes (p. 24);

- He ignores sources of information that do not support his thesis such as those that confirm death of Wladyslaw of Varna at the Battle of Varna (p. 24).

3

Based on the article that you have read, point out elements that allow considering the material of a different nature (books, articles, WebPages) as a reliable source of historical information.

Methodological remarks: the task can be realized individually or in groups of two.
Solution to the task: elements that raise the reliability of the material as a source of historical information are (p. 23):

- including the information related to the competence and qualifications of the author such as vocational education and training, conducted research, previous positions;

- proper scientific apparatus: enriching the material with references to the sources that were used by the author, adding a bibliography - compilation of publications on the topic;

- properly carried out critical evaluation of a historical source that consists in determining the credibility of its author and the information contained in the source.

4

Take a look at portraits of Christopher Columbus and Wladyslaw of Varna attached to the article. Can they constitute the material that allows confirming kinship between the great explorer and the Polish king? Why?

Methodological remarks: the task can be realized individually or in groups of two.
Solution to the task: Portrait of Christopher Columbus attached to the article is a picture dating from the period. Therefore, it can be assumed that it presents a likely image of the traveller. The Portrait of King Wladyslaw by Jan Matejko dates from the nineteenth century therefore cannot be considered a reliable image of the king who lived 400 years earlier. Consequently, based on these two specific illustrations from the article, it is not possible to determine any possible similarity or the more kinship between these two historical figures.

a. What elements can be used to assess the usefulness of illustrations (painting, portrait, and drawing) as a reliable source of historical information?

Methodological remarks: the task can be realized individually, in groups of two, or as a discussion between the teacher and students during which the teacher directs the students at the correct answer using appropriate questions.
Solution to the task: the elements that allow assessing an illustration as a reliable source of historical information are:

- information about the date of creation of a figure (picture contemporary to considered events are more credible than the one which was created later);

- information about the author of the image. It often can help to determine whether the author was a direct witness to the events that are presented in the image; or he or she uses relations, memories from the event; or only uses their own ideas on the subject;

- information on the origins of the image (who order it? for what reason?).

b. Which of the illustrations included in the article may provide a reliable source of information about Christopher Columbus or Wladyslaw of Varna?

Methodological remarks: the task can be realized individually or in groups of two.
Solution to the task: Among the illustrations included in the article, only the portrait of Christopher Columbus by Sebastiano del Piombo can be regarded as a potential source of historical information. The painter who performed the portrait lived in the time of Columbus and belonged to the same social circles as the great explorer. Thus, this painting can be a source of information about the likely appearance of Columbus. The other two images in the article are from the nineteenth century and present only the imagination of the authors about the facts or historical figures that are shown. The two considered images illustrate well the realities of the era to which they relate to and can help you to picture the past events (e.g. Jan Matejko was known for his care for fidelity to historical details shown in his paintings). However, they are not reliable sources of historical information.

c. Try to search out the images that can provide a reliable source of information about Christopher Columbus and Władysław of Varna (the images should meet the criteria presented in the previous parts of this module) in the German, British, Swedish, Spanish articles proposed by the teacher or on the Internet.

Methodological remarks: the task can be realized individually or in groups of two.
Solution to the task: The images from the era of Christopher Columbus are more easily accessible than from the Wladyslaw’s of Varna period. It was Columbus who was better known in his time, thus quite often portrayed. King Wladysław III of Varna died too young to live to see many of his portraits.

d. Take part in the discussion and justify your opinion: Is it possible to determine any similarities or kinship between Christopher Columbus and Wladyslaw of Varna based on the illustrative material gathered in this task?

Methodological remarks: the task can be realized as a discussion moderated by the teacher at the group/class forum.
Solution to the task: students can take a variety of points of view and cite various arguments. During the discussion, the teacher should draw students’ attention to content-related character of the arguments they are presenting. The teacher should also underline the importance of proper assessment of the sources that were used in the task.

5

Present your position in the discussion: After reading the article by Rafał Jaworski, are you interested in reading the book M. Rosa? Why should or should not this book be reached for?

Methodological remarks: this task may take the form of a discussion moderated by the teacher in the group/class forum. Students should have the opportunity to present their points of view. The discussion should aim to the conclusion that it is worthwhile to use credible and reliable sources of information. But it is worth also to independently familiarize oneself with a given material in order to assess its usefulness and to form independent opinions. The teacher should encourage students to reach for various historical sources and to perform critical evaluation on their own.


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