Book: The Patina of Distrust

One of the joint-winners of the ASIS&T information science book of the year award is:
Mitchelstein, E., Boczkowski, P.J., Wagner, M.C. & Suenzo, F. (2025). The Patina of Distrust: What People Do with Misinformation. MIT Press. https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262550765/the-patina-of-distrust/ ISBN: 9780262550765
The online open access version is here https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/6048/The-Patina-of-DistrustWhat-People-Do-with
The book analyses news reception in Argentina’s 2019 presidential election "drawing from interviews, survey data, and experiments" and they also more briefly address reception of news in the COVID19 pandemic and the 2023 election of the Argentine president Javier Milei. They focus on "the dynamics of reception that mediate between the production and spread of misinformation on the one hand, and its potential effects on the other"
Photo by Sheila Webber: foxtail lily, June 2026

New articles: Media education; Multiliteracy; Disinformation; Teachers' digital and media and information literacy

The new issue of the open access journal Comunicar (vol 30 no. 70, 2022) has a focus on New challenges for teachers in the context of digital learning. Articles are in English and Spanish - if you want to change the language, click the flag on the top right of the screen (e.g. a Union Jack for English). Articles include:
- Disinformation and multiliteracy: A systematic review of the literature Jesús Valverde-Berrocoso, Cáceres (Spain), Alberto González-Fernández, Cáceres (Spain) & Jesús Acevedo-Borrega, Cáceres (Spain). https://doi.org/10.3916/C70-2022-08
- Critical media literacy to improve students' competencies Walter-Antonio Mesquita-Romero, Sibundoy (Colombia), Carmen Fernández-Morante, Santiago de Compostela (Spain) & Beatriz Cebreiro-López, Santiago de Compostela (Spain). https://doi.org/10.3916/C70-2022-04
- Teachers' perspectives for a critical agenda in media education post COVID-19. A comparative study in Latin America Julio-César Mateus, Lima (Peru), Pablo Andrada, La Serena (Chile), Catalina González-Cabrera, Cuenca (Ecuador), Cecilia Ugalde, Cuenca (Ecuador) & Sebastián Novomisky, La Plata (Argentina). https://doi.org/10.3916/C70-2022-01
- ICT and Media competencies of teachers. Convergence towards an integrated MIL-ICT model Alfonso Gutiérrez-Martín, Segovia (Spain), Ruth Pinedo-González, Segovia (Spain) & Cristina Gil-Puente, Segovia (Spain). https://doi.org/10.3916/C70-2022-02
The whole issue is at https://www.revistacomunicar.com/index.php?contenido=revista&numero=70
Photo by Sheila Webber: Christmas trees out for collection no. 3, January 2022

Alfin Argentina

For Spanish speakers: an Argentinian blog on information literacy, Alfin argentina, by Ana Chiesa http://alfinenargentina.blogspot.com.ar/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Observatory Tower, Helsinki Zoo, August 2012.

IL in schools; Media Literacy

I don't think I've mentioned the Argentinian blog Alfin en la escuela (information literacy in schools) http://alfinenlaescuela.blogspot.com/. It is in Spanish.

One publication it just highlighted is a new Portuguese-language publication, the proceedings of the First National Congress on media literacy and citizenship, held at the Universidad de Miño, Portugal, 25-26 March 2011. It includes numerous papers on media literacy, digital literacy, information literacy etc. The proceedings are at http://www.lasics.uminho.pt/OJS/index.php/lmc/issue/view/38/showToc
Photo by Sheila Webber: Botanic Gardens, Sheffield, July 2011

ORT Argentina

Following my post about sessions at the Online Information conference I was called by someone who had a brief to write about ORT and was asking me why I had picked out the ORT Argentina session. The simple answer was that it was becuase it had the phrase "Information literacy". However, in response to that, I have dug a bit more, including reading more carefully through the long abstract for the session, which is here.
I still think it is interesting (fortunately) since the initiative involves students at school, and their teachers, creating and using blogs. This would seem to develop information literacy, learning more about how to handle and use information through creating it, and becoming a more informed information consumer.
ORT is "world's largest Jewish education and vocational training non-governmental organisation" (http://www.ort.org/) although its initiatives are not restricted to Jewish people. In Argentina it has a compex with 2 schools and two further education colleges, all with a high technology focus/infrastructure. There is information (in Spanish mostly) about ORT Argentina here http://www.ort.edu.ar/ and there is a page of links to blogs here: http://campus.ort.edu.ar/html/6045/red-de-blogs-de-ort-argentina
Photo by Sheila Webber: Sheffield, November 2008

Argentinian blog

For Spanish speakers, I recently came across the Argentinian information literacy blog, Alfabetización Informacional en Argentina (ALFIN), at http://alfinenargentina.blogspot.com/ This has links to numerous other Spanish-language resources, including tutorials.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Flamingos (perhaps Spanish-speaking) in Madrid Zoo, Spain, January 2005.