Media & Information Studies Syllabus

A complete, free curriculum for understanding how information works, who controls it, and how to navigate it. How media shapes belief, how misinformation spreads, how platforms concentrate power, and how citizens can fight back with facts. Eighteen courses drawn from five Quarex libraries.

18Courses
263Chapters
1,632Topics

Foundations

Critical thinking, media theory, and the institution of journalism — the intellectual foundation for everything that follows.

1 Foundations of Critical Thinking 8 ch.
  1. How to Spot a Bad Argument
  2. Why We Fool Ourselves
  3. Evaluating Evidence
  4. The Art of Asking Questions
  5. Numbers Can Lie
  6. Media Literacy Essentials
  7. Separating Correlation from Causation
  8. Thinking About Thinking
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2 How Information Shapes What We Believe 22 ch.
  1. The Psychology of Belief Formation
  2. How Media Evolved
  3. The Attention Economy
  4. Algorithms and Filter Bubbles
  5. Social Media Dynamics
  6. Media Bias: Real and Perceived
  7. Propaganda and Persuasion
  8. Misinformation and Disinformation
  9. The Decline of Shared Reality
  10. Trust and Institutional Credibility
  11. Political Communication and Spin
  12. Echo Chambers and Polarization
  13. The Business of News
  14. Information Warfare
  15. Deepfakes and Synthetic Media
  16. Platform Power and Content Moderation
  17. Media Literacy and Critical Thinking
  18. Science Communication and Expertise
  19. Information Access and Inequality
  20. Government, Secrecy, and Transparency
  21. AI and the Future of Information
  22. Possible Futures
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3 Newspapers of the World 49 ch.
  1. The New York Times
  2. The Washington Post
  3. The Wall Street Journal
  4. Los Angeles Times
  5. USA Today
  6. The Globe and Mail
  7. Toronto Star
  8. The Guardian
  9. The Times (London)
  10. The Telegraph
  11. Financial Times
  12. The Daily Mail
  13. Le Monde
  14. Le Figaro
  15. Der Spiegel
  16. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
  17. Süddeutsche Zeitung
  18. El País
  19. Corriere della Sera
  20. La Repubblica
  21. NRC Handelsblad
  22. Neue Zürcher Zeitung
  23. South China Morning Post
  24. Yomiuri Shimbun
  25. Asahi Shimbun
  26. Chosun Ilbo
  27. The Times of India
  28. The Hindu
  29. The Indian Express
  30. Dawn
  31. Haaretz
  32. The Jerusalem Post
  33. Israel Hayom
  34. Al-Ahram
  35. Asharq Al-Awsat
  36. Hürriyet
  37. Folha de S.Paulo
  38. O Globo
  39. Clarín
  40. La Nación (Argentina)
  41. El Universal (Mexico)
  42. El Mercurio
  43. The Australian
  44. The Sydney Morning Herald
  45. The Age
  46. The New Zealand Herald
  47. Mail & Guardian
  48. Daily Maverick
  49. The Daily Nation
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Media, Power, and Persuasion

How media shapes politics, reinforces inequality, manufactures outrage, and sells you things you didn’t ask for.

4 Polarization Pays 14 ch.
  1. What Is Polarization, Really?
  2. The Business Incentive Behind Division
  3. Media’s Role in Manufacturing Outrage
  4. Social Media Algorithms and the Attention Economy
  5. When Outrage Becomes Entertainment
  6. State Actors and Strategic Polarization
  7. Political Actors Who Exploit Polarization
  8. The Psychology of Polarization
  9. Disinformation, Misinformation, and Manipulation
  10. Polarization Beyond Politics
  11. The Cost to Society
  12. Who Pays the Price?
  13. Can Polarization Be Reversed?
  14. Choosing Curiosity Over Conflict
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5 Gender, Media, and Representation 15 ch.
  1. How Media Constructs Gender
  2. The Male Gaze and Who the Camera Has Always Served
  3. Early Film and the Gender Archetypes That Still Define Hollywood
  4. Advertising, Objectification, and the Commercial Value of Women’s Bodies
  5. How News Organizations Frame Women as Subjects Rather Than Sources
  6. Why Women Are Rarely Quoted as Experts
  7. The Sexualization Trap
  8. Race, Representation, and Which Women Get to Be Seen in Media
  9. How LGBTQ+ Women Have Been Portrayed, Erased, and Reclaimed in Media
  10. Reality Television and the Gendered Spectacle
  11. Who Controls Production: Ownership, Gatekeeping, and the Business of Representation
  12. Social Media Algorithms and the Automated Reinforcement of Gender Stereotypes
  13. Influencer Culture and the New Economics of Performing Womanhood
  14. Violence Against Women as Entertainment
  15. Building a Media-Literate Society That Sees Through Gendered Representation
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6 Political Advertising: Finding the Facts 10 ch.
  1. The Evolution of Political Advertising
  2. Anatomy of a Political Ad
  3. Common Deception Techniques
  4. Fact-Checking Political Claims
  5. Digital and Social Media Advertising
  6. The Money Behind Political Ads
  7. Legal Rules and Their Loopholes
  8. Media Literacy for Voters
  9. International Perspectives
  10. The Future of Political Advertising
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Misinformation and Manipulation

How lies spread, how the press is corrupted, and how history itself gets rewritten when the truth becomes inconvenient.

7 The Trump Effect on the News 10 ch.
  1. The ‘Fake News’ Revolution
  2. The Cable News Transformation
  3. Twitter, Truth Social, and the Direct Pipeline
  4. The Access vs. Accountability Dilemma
  5. The Business of Trump Coverage
  6. Presidential War on the Press
  7. Polarization and the Two Realities
  8. Journalism’s Identity Crisis
  9. International Perspectives
  10. The Legacy and Ongoing Impact
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8 Trump’s Lies: Then and Now 11 ch.
  1. The Business Years: Building a Brand on Exaggeration
  2. 2011–2016: Birtherism and the Rise of Political Lying
  3. First Term 2017–2018: Establishing the Pattern
  4. First Term 2019–2020: Pre-Pandemic Falsehoods
  5. COVID-19: A Pandemic of Misinformation
  6. The Big Lie: 2020 Election Denial
  7. 2021–2024: Exile, Indictments, and Continued Falsehoods
  8. Second Term 2025: The Lies Continue
  9. The Repetition Strategy: Why the Same Lies Persist
  10. Consequences: When Lies Cause Real Harm
  11. Why Do People Believe? The Psychology of Political Lying
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9 How History Gets Rewritten: The Revisionism Playbook 9 ch.
  1. What Is Revisionism?
  2. The Revisionist Playbook
  3. The Infrastructure of Revisionism
  4. Long-Game Tactics
  5. Who Benefits?
  6. Psychology of Belief Persistence
  7. Digital-Age Revisionism
  8. The Primary Source Defense
  9. Engaging Revisionist Believers
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Technology, Platforms, and the Information Ecosystem

How digital platforms, AI, and the architecture of the internet reshape what information reaches you — and what gets suppressed.

10 Technology’s Hidden Tradeoffs 25 ch.
  1. Why Technology Is Never Neutral
  2. The Surveillance Bargain
  3. Algorithmic Decision-Making
  4. Artificial Intelligence: Promise and Peril
  5. Social Media’s Psychological Costs
  6. Novel Technologies and Missing Cultural Defenses
  7. Children in the Digital World
  8. The Automation of Work
  9. The Gig Economy’s Hidden Costs
  10. Platform Power and Digital Monopolies
  11. Data Ownership and Consent
  12. Technology and Democracy
  13. Facial Recognition and Biometric Surveillance
  14. Autonomous Weapons and Military AI
  15. Biotechnology and Human Enhancement
  16. Environmental Costs of Technology
  17. Digital Divide and Technological Inequality
  18. Smart Cities and Public Space
  19. The Right to Repair
  20. Health Technology and Medical AI
  21. Cryptocurrency and Decentralized Finance
  22. Content Moderation Dilemmas
  23. Technology in Education
  24. Emerging Technologies on the Horizon
  25. Who Gets to Decide?
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11 AI, Bots, and Synthetic Media 12 ch.
  1. What Is Synthetic Media?
  2. How AI Generates Text
  3. How AI Generates Images and Video
  4. How AI Generates and Clones Audio
  5. Tell-Tale Signs of AI-Generated Content
  6. Bot Networks and Engagement Farms
  7. Astroturfing and Manufactured Consensus
  8. Political Manipulation and Election Interference
  9. The Trust Crisis: When Nothing Looks Real
  10. Tools and Techniques for Verification
  11. Legal, Regulatory, and Platform Responses
  12. Living in a World of Synthetic Content
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12 Free Speech versus Hate Speech 10 ch.
  1. Why Does Free Speech Matter?
  2. What Is Hate Speech, and Who Decides?
  3. The First Amendment: America’s Exceptional Approach
  4. How Other Democracies Handle Hate Speech
  5. Does Hateful Speech Cause Real Harm?
  6. Campus Speech Battles
  7. Social Media: Private Platforms, Public Squares?
  8. The Slippery Slope Debate
  9. Marginalized Groups: Split Perspectives
  10. Finding Workable Boundaries
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Power, Wealth, and Information Control

Who controls the narrative — how concentrated wealth, AI, and institutional power shape what you know and what you never hear about.

13 AI + Billionaires = Hyperagency 10 ch.
  1. What Is Hyperagency?
  2. How AI Amplifies Billionaire Power
  3. Who Has Hyperagency Today?
  4. Platform Control and Algorithmic Manipulation
  5. AI Disinformation and Synthetic Media
  6. The Asymmetry Problem
  7. What We Cannot See
  8. Contested Perspectives
  9. Remedies and Democratic Defenses
  10. The Stakes: What Happens If We Fail?
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14 AI Risks: Real vs. Imaginary 12 ch.
  1. Framing the Debate: What Counts as a Real Risk?
  2. Real Danger: Economic Displacement and Job Loss
  3. Real Danger: Billionaire Control and Platform Manipulation
  4. Real Danger: AI-Powered Disinformation
  5. Real Danger: Surveillance, Bias, and Institutional Harms
  6. Imaginary Danger: Sentient AI and Machine Consciousness
  7. Imaginary Danger: Superintelligence and Extinction
  8. Who Benefits from the Imaginary Risks Narrative?
  9. The Opportunity Cost of Misplaced Fear
  10. Defenses Against AI Risk Misinformation
  11. Contested Perspectives
  12. Focusing on What Matters
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15 The Philanthropy-Power Divide 10 ch.
  1. The Asymmetry Problem
  2. Power vs Philanthropy
  3. Institution Building on the Right
  4. Fragmentation on the Left
  5. Risk, Reputation, and Respectability
  6. Media Economics and Narrative Control
  7. Failed Experiments and False Conclusions
  8. The Class Conflict Within Liberalism
  9. Why Knowledge Infrastructure Is Different
  10. What a Non-Billionaire-Dependent Alternative Looks Like
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Practical Media Literacy

Applied skills — how to evaluate sources, check political claims, and verify information using real tools and techniques.

16 Evaluating Sources and Expertise 12 ch.
  1. Why Source Evaluation Matters
  2. Credible Institutions vs. Random Accounts
  3. Signals of Expertise and Peer Review
  4. Understanding Bias and Editorial Slant
  5. Separating News, Opinion, and Rumor
  6. Evaluating Scientific and Health Claims
  7. Evaluating Government and Official Sources
  8. Evaluating Social Media as a Source
  9. Following the Money: Funding and Motivation
  10. The Ecosystem of Unreliable Sources
  11. When Experts Disagree
  12. Building Your Source Evaluation Habits
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17 Checking Political Claims and Statistics 12 ch.
  1. How Politicians Use Numbers to Persuade
  2. Finding Original Data and Reports
  3. Understanding Polls and Margins of Error
  4. Recognizing Misleading Graphs and Charts
  5. Economic Claims: Jobs, GDP, and Cost of Living
  6. Crime and Safety Claims
  7. Immigration Claims
  8. Healthcare and Social Program Claims
  9. Climate and Environmental Claims
  10. Education and Budget Claims
  11. Fact-Checking Organizations and How to Use Them
  12. Building Your Political Fact-Checking Practice
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18 Tools and Techniques for Verifying Information 12 ch.
  1. Reverse Image Search and Visual Verification
  2. Using Fact-Checking Sites Effectively
  3. Looking Up Claims in Official Databases
  4. Spotting Manipulated Images and Deepfakes
  5. Verifying Social Media Claims
  6. Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) Basics
  7. Checking Claims About Science and Health
  8. Verifying News Stories and Sources
  9. Browser Extensions and Digital Tools
  10. Dealing with Uncertainty and Ambiguity
  11. Teaching Verification to Others
  12. Building Your Verification Workflow
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