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9th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 12 of 14

Media Analysis

Rhetoric, framing and synthetic media

What your child practices

Students analyze the purposes and techniques of media messages (rhetorical appeals, framing, propaganda, sponsored content, deepfakes) and how beliefs and algorithms shape interpretation.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 9-10R6; 9-10R7; 9-10SL2 · analyzing how media messages use appeals, framing and other techniques

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Media shape feelings with music, framing and charts. A cut-off y-axis can make a trend look bigger.
  2. Confirmation bias is favoring information you already agree with.
  3. A filter bubble is a feed that shows mainly what you already agree with.

Example: What is confirmation bias? “Confirm” means show something is true. People tend to look for what backs up their beliefs. Answer: the tendency to favor information that matches what you already believe

Media Analysis in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 12 of 14 in 9th grade English Language Arts, after Proofreading and before Evaluating Arguments and Texts.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Which technique is common in propaganda?

    • citing many sides
    • listing sources
    • inviting debate
    • repeating a simple slogan and showing only one side

  2. Question 2

    What is a deepfake?

    • a documentary
    • AI-made video or audio that makes a person seem to say or do something they did not
    • a news correction
    • a blurry photo

  3. Question 3

    Which is a sign a social media account may be a bot?

    • it posts about hobbies
    • it has friends
    • it has a profile picture
    • it posts constantly, has no personal details and repeats the same messages

  4. Question 4

    What does it mean to analyze a media message's techniques?

    • count its views
    • summarize its plot only
    • check its spelling only
    • examine the choices, like images, sound and words, and their effects

  5. Question 5

    A news story uses an anonymous source. How should readers treat it?

    • as an ad
    • as fully proven
    • with some caution, looking for confirmation from other sources
    • as false

  6. Question 6

    What is the difference between misinformation and disinformation?

    • disinformation is a type of citation
    • misinformation is false by mistake; disinformation is false on purpose
    • they are the same
    • misinformation is always true

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