The internet era has given us access to a dizzying array of information, but also allowed for misinformation and disinformation to proliferate.Today it is more important than ever to have critical thinking and media literacy skills.That is precisely what my project, politeracy, aims to do.

My goal is to create a website which compiles resources on political literacy and activism, in order to make them more accessible to people who don’t/can’t read theory. There should be at least 5 subtopics with one video (an already existing one found online) and one short text each (written by me) if necessary. The goal is challenging because it requires massive amounts of research and compilation.

The goal is specific because the idea and goal of my project are presented with an appropriate level of detail;measurable because specific quantities are included within it; achievable because I calculated the amount of work time to make sure it wouldn’t be too much work; relevant because it’s an extension of my values and will hopefully be a useful resource; and timely because I’ve already set a deadline for myself.

My project’s global context is Fairness and Development, since my project is about activism, and the global context mentions conflict resolution,peace,rights and responsibilities, all of which are important to political literacy, since being politically literate gives you the skills to do these things in your community.Additionally, several of the projects sound similar to mine.

My prior knowledge is that I have taken several history classes, which involved a lot of research.Much of the time, the subject of this research was politics. I am currently taking a Mexican geography class, which has also involved a lot of research, on Mexico’s current political landscape specifically. I regularly have conversations about politics with people I know, and strangers. I have studied the work of prominent activists, and attended protests.I have read important political texts, like The Communist Manifesto. I practice writing on a regular basis, and am familiar with argumentative, persuasive, and informative styles of writing.In my Language and Literature classes I learned several skills relevant to my project.Multilingualism, specifically speaking English and French in addition to my native language will help me with my project mostly in terms of access to resources.English,Spanish, and French are very widespread outside of their countries of origins due to colonialism, so there are texts,videos,etc. in these languages from many regions around the world.

Having access to these resources will help me learn a wider variety of information and give me a more cosmopolitan understanding of activism.Being able to proficiently use the different styles of writing will help me use tone, vocabulary, and sentence structure in order to make information as accessible as possible.If I didn’t know how to properly pace a text, for example, my writing would be hard to read, leading to confusion or readers giving up.If I didn’t know the appropriate vocabulary for writing educational resources, I might sound too informal or alienate readers with obscure words. Advanced literacy is crucial when learning about politics, since many important resources are filled with technical terms,confusing phrasing, and complex concepts.Without advanced literacy, I would need to rely on simpler resources, which may cause me to miss out on important ideas.

I am mainly using audio visual sources, since I think they will be the easiest to digest for potential users.These videos are going to come by well known, reputable YouTube channels that make content that is educational but not too dry, like Crash Course,Contrapoints, and Philosophytube.For certain topics I was unable to find an accessible (as in, easy to understand) resource.For these topics I will make simple Khan-Acedemy style videos which summarize information from sources with useful information, like statistical sources, that are too dense to present to a general audience.