Modules
Grade 7
📰Media Literacy
Visual Information Literacy
Learn how images, charts, and videos can be manipulated or misrepresented to mislead audiences.
11 min 3 quiz questions Grade 7
Seeing Is Not Believing
Images and videos feel more convincing than text, but they can be manipulated, taken out of context, or misrepresented just as easily as written information — and often more effectively.
How Images Mislead
- Out-of-context images: Real photos used to illustrate a different event or claim
- Cropped images: Removing context changes the meaning of a photo
- Manipulated images: Edited with software to change content
- Deepfakes: AI-generated images or videos of people saying or doing things they never did
- Misleading captions: Accurate images paired with false or misleading text
Deepfake:An AI-generated image or video that realistically depicts a person saying or doing something they never actually said or did.
How Charts and Graphs Mislead
- Truncated y-axis: Starting the y-axis above zero exaggerates differences
- Cherry-picked time ranges: Selecting a time period that supports a conclusion
- Misleading scale: Using different scales on the same chart
- Correlation presented as causation: Two trends shown together do not mean one causes the other
Reverse Image Search
Use Google Images or TinEye to reverse image search any suspicious photo. This reveals where the image originally appeared and whether it has been used in different contexts.
Reverse Image Search:A tool that finds other instances of an image online, revealing its original source and whether it has been used out of context.
Example: Truncated Y-Axis
A chart showing crime rates from 95 to 100 (not 0 to 100) makes a 5% increase look like a doubling. Always check where the y-axis starts.
Ready to test your knowledge?
3 questions · Grade 7 level