Argumentation: Media literacy balloon
This is a critical thinking game where students pretend they represent a specific media outlet or content provider and prove to others that they are worthy of staying in a crashing hot air balloon.
Lesson goals
- Becoming more comfortable with public speaking and explaining the reasoning behind your statements in front of others
- Improving argumentation skills in a fun and interactive way
Activities
Exercise (30 minutes) - class or groups
Teacher explains the ground rules and ensures the class understands the game. Students play the game.
Aim: students play the game and practice argumentation.
Discussion (15 minutes) - class
Class discusses the game they have just played.
Aim: students reflect on the arguments they have heard.
Keywords
Pedagogical tips and recommendations
- This is an excellent introduction to more formal lessons about argumentation and/or media landscapes.
- You can quickly adapt the rules to fit the number of students, their level of knowledge, etc.
Exercise (30 minutes)
This is a straightforward game with a simple and adaptable premise (feel free to adapt it or even change the context). First, every student has to name a media outlet from your local environment. If you have a lot of students (20-30) you can expand this to the broadest possible definition of a media outlet and/or content provider. Have students name specific media outlets and content providers corresponding to the following (non-exhaustive) list of categories:
- Newspapers (ex. Bild, El Pais, Le Figaro…)
- Online news portals (e.g. Euronews, Index.hr, TechCrunch…)
- Radio stations;
- Television stations;
- Social media influencers;
- Podcasts
- …
Each student should be assigned one specific media provider. Ideally, one they’re at least somewhat familiar with. For the game's duration, they represent the provider they were assigned.
If you are working with a large group (20-30 students), split them into different “hot air balloons” - groups of up to 10 students. Move the desks and chairs to create more room in the classroom, and have each group stand in a circle.
After all students pick their own media provider, you inform them of the scenario: they are all in a hot air balloon. Still, the balloon is about to crash because it is too heavy, so one media representative must be thrown out. They have to choose who to throw out democratically. To do this, everyone has 1-2 minutes to explain why they should remain in the balloon, providing arguments that outline the importance of the media outlet or content provider they represent.
Now, they have to decide who gets thrown out democratically. If you have enough time, have the students select more media representatives to throw out.
Discussion (15 minutes)
- What were your main criteria for deciding who gets thrown out?
- Was there a lot of disagreement in your group about who to throw out? Why?
- Do the criteria you chose to determine the importance of each media provider represented reflect your media consumption habits, i.e., was the person you threw out first the representative for the type of content you consume the least?