You have already practised looking at the theme, purpose and audience of digital media. Today you will think about when a post really helps people decide something, and when it is mostly trying to change how they feel.
First you will judge some online campaigns and choose a verdict for each one. Then you will use the same test on one real example.
Citizenship means taking part in your community and in public life, for example keeping up with the news, having your say, and helping to make decisions that affect other people.
Today's test is not whether a post is popular or whether you agree with it. It is whether the post gave people what they needed to make a better decision, or mostly pushed a feeling.
A council notice with a date, a map link and an email address helps people decide. A dramatic post saying "share before this gets deleted", with no source, mostly just winds people up so they react.
Read Case 1 in the activity below and talk it through together as a class. Then choose your verdict before the reasoning is shown. The three verdicts are:
- Genuinely informed: the post really helped people make a better decision
- Mainly mobilised feeling: the post mostly stirred people up to feel something and react
- Mixed or cannot tell from this post alone
In the next step, everyone votes on all the campaigns on their own device.
Nobody is scored. Be ready to say what evidence would change your mind.
Informed or just mobilised?
Now everyone votes on every campaign on their own device. Round 1 is Case 1, which you just worked through together.
There is no score and no time limit. Your teacher may open the vote again after the discussion to see who changed their mind.
- Read each case and choose your verdict.
- When the reasoning comes up, compare it with your own reason for your vote.
Some cases are clearer than others, and on the harder ones people can fairly disagree. What matters most is that you can give a good reason for your verdict.
Class Poll
Now use the same test on one real, public example, such as a school notice, a club post or a council update. Only use something from your own feed if you are happy for it to be read out. You can open one public notice on your device.
If you are stuck, pick one from the box below.
A weather warning, a school app notice, a sports club fixture change, a library opening hours post, a bus or train disruption update.
Aim for this first. Write one sentence about each of these three things:
- the public example you chose
- one trust signal in it
- one change that could make it misleading, which means it could give people the wrong idea
A trust signal is anything in the post that lets you check it for yourself, such as a date, a named sender, a link or a contact you could write to. A change that could mislead might be a missing source, a fake deadline or pressure to share.
"People could decide ___ because ___."
"It would mislead if it ___."
If you have time, go further:
- Say in one or two sentences what made your example trustworthy enough to help people decide.
- Be ready to share your example briefly if your teacher asks.
Keep examples respectful, so do not name classmates or share private posts.
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