Course overview
According to the scientific journal Nature Communications, “Fake news has plagued climate and environmental science for decades. Influential misinformation campaigns, selective media exposure, fabricated controversies, alternative facts and false media balance have, in the view of many, manipulated scientific knowledge, sown seeds of confusion among the populace and threatened to derail environmental progress.” Information literacy—the ability to understand different types of sources and evaluate the trustworthiness of media and other sources of information—is a key skill of our age. Which sources are most trustworthy? Which are clearly bogus? These skills are especially important in the realms of the environment and sustainability, where corporations and other actors are increasingly making false claims about environmental friendliness—a practice known as “greenwashing.” For example, according to the United Nations, “60 percent of sustainability claims by European fashion giants are ‘unsubstantiated’ and ‘misleading.’ This course is designed to give students knowledge and skills that will make them better consumers of information in relation to claims of “green” practices and products—as well as in their other professional and personal domains.
Through short readings, video clips, class discussion and student-driven research projects, students will learn concepts and techniques for locating and evaluating different types of sources. The three central course concepts will be:

• Authoritativeness: Who/what organization is presenting the information? Where did they get the information from? How expert are they on matters directly related to the topic at hand? What is their reputation?
• Timeliness: How old is the information? Considering the specific topic at hand, is it recent enough or out of date?
• Bias/conflicts of interest: Do the source’s authors or publishers likely have reasons to filter or mislead readers on matters related to the topic? Should we be concerned about political or monetary factors affecting what they share?

Most texts used during the course will be selected by the students themselves.

15-minute challenges: At the start of some class session, the instructor will pose a fact-based question to the class and teams will work for 15 minutes to try to answer the question by locating what they believe to be the most relevant, authoritative, up-to-date, and least biased source for answering that question. We’ll then examine and compare the proposed sources and, finally, vote to determine the winning team for the day—the one that we collectively believe is the best source for that specific purpose.

Guest Discussions: Some classes will be devoted to conversations with guest experts (via Zoom) who have high-level expertise. Guests may include (among others): Bill Adair, founder of the Pulitzer Prize-winning website PolitiFact and Knight Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy at Duke University; specializes in journalism and new media, with an emphasis on structured journalism and fact-checking. Mark Schapiro, former Senior Correspondent for the Center for Investigative Reporting; explores the intersection between the environment, economics, and international political power.

Major Project
Working in teams of 3-4, students will undertake a focused research project and present their findings to the class. With instructor guidance, each group will choose one specific, fact-driven question to investigate and keep a journal of their search. Students will then put their question to an AI app that lists its sources (such as Perplexity). Part of the task is to critique those sources using the authoritativeness/timeliness/ bias framework. They will then present to the class what they learned about the answer(s) to their group’s question—but also what they learned more generally about evaluating sources. Students are encouraged to conduct some of this research in their home language—using sources specific to their country (such as government and NGO websites).

Learning Outcomes
To become more sophisticated consumers of information, students will learn to thoughtfully consider three factors when choosing or evaluating sources: Who is the author and publisher? What was the primary aim in publishing the material? Do the authors have appropriate expertise? What is the reputation of the publisher? What conflicts or interests or biases may be present? Is the material sufficiently recent or out of date? Students will also learn how to use AI tools in a skeptical manner and how to present findings from a research project effectively—and with appropriate humility.

Evaluation
Quizzes on assigned readings (10%)
Attendance and Active Participation: (10%)
Group and individual presentations on assigned topics (30%)
Research project presentation (30%)
Final report (20%)

Example Readings

Introductory
Green Fraud: What exactly is it? Green Business Journal.
Greenwashing: A form of corruption? U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre. 14 December 2023.
Greenwashing – the deceptive tactics behind environmental claims. United Nations.
Concepts and forms of greenwashing: a systematic review. de Freitas Netto et al. Environ Sci Eur (2020) 32:19 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12302-020-0300-3

Other
Breivik, P. S. (2005). 21st Century Learning and Information Literacy. Change, 37(2), 20–27.
Behrens, S. J. (1994). A conceptual analysis and historical overview of information literacy. College & research libraries, 55(4), 309-322.
Snavely, L., & Cooper, N. (1997). The information literacy debate. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 23(1), 9-14.
Freeman, E., & Lynd-Balta, E. (2010). Developing Information Literacy Skills Early in an Undergraduate Curriculum. College Teaching, 58(3), 109–115.
Lloyd, A (2005). Information literacy; different contexts, different concepts, different truths?’ Journal of Library and Information Science, 37 (2), pp. 82-88.
Marcum, J.W. (2002). Rethinking Information Literacy. Library Quarterly, 72(1), 1-26. Retrieved May 22, 2023 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/92811/.
Doyle, C. S. (1994). Information literacy in an information society: A concept for the information age. Diane Publishing.
Badke, W. (2011). Why information literacy is invisible. Communications in information literacy, 4(2), 2.
Holmes, Bob. (2022) How sustainable are fake meats? Knowable Magazine. https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/food-environment/2022/how-sustainable-are-fake-meats
War on waste: how the EU is tackling illegal shipments to developing countries. Euro News
80% of Europe’s ‘used’ cooking oil now imported raising concerns over fraud. T&E: European Federation for Transport and Environment.

Example Videos
Information Literacy | Kevin Arms | TEDxLSSC
Creating critical thinkers through media literacy: Andrea Quijada at TEDxABQED
Media Literacy - The Power (and Responsibility) of Information | Lisa Cutter |
To Fact-Check or Not: The Importance of Media and Information Literacy | Ekene Odigwe |
Why people fall for misinformation - Joseph Isaac

Last updated: January 10, 2025