Fact or Fiction: Exploring Critical Media Literacy in the Current Socio- Political Climate

This workshop centers on methodology used within a co-taught undergraduate course. The course
explores ways of making meaning through experimental pedagogical practices in critical pedagogy
spanning Theatre of the Oppressed, Feminist Studies, and the field of Composition and Rhetoric. Our
aim is to cultivate in students a sense of critical empathy (Lobb) and literacy skills by weaving
together methods for engaging with text, widely conceptualized to include linguistic, visual, and
embodied modes. We will explicitly focus on digital technologies in this offering. Workshop
participants will explore methods of research and writing through the composition of a shared
artifact, using Newspaper Theatre as our guide. Juxtaposing lived experience and representations
from digital media sources, we will draw together stories highlighting the subjectivity of “the news,”
utilizing synthesis and critique as forms of meaning-making. This approach emphasizes the
ideological diversity within classrooms, where multiple ways of thinking come into conversation.
Participants will also be invited to experience creating texts while playing with the de-mechanization
of the body (Boal), a central liberatory practice of Theatre of the Oppressed. During the workshop,
participants will receive a tutorial on Newspaper Theatre techniques, and work in groups to create a
performance to share with the collective. The text(s) could include current news, historical
documents, cultural texts/mythologies, song lyrics, or other similar resources. Performances may be
informed by previous generative activities, though participants will be invited to address any range
of topics of interest to the group. The workshop will culminate with sharing of productions and a
brief closing circle to discuss takeaways from the experience. We hope, through a convergence of
practices bridging feminist pedagogy, composition, and Theatre of the Oppressed, we can actualize
pathways towards creating inclusive and egalitarian communities. By the end of the workshop,
participants will gain an understanding of the goals and basic techniques in Newspaper Theatre as a
tool to cultivate embodied approaches to critical media literacy.