Media Literacy Roundup: 26 April 2026
Media, Links and Reflections from Wes Fryer
Have you noticed “media literacy” just gets more important the further we travel together into this “Age of Artificial Intelligence?!” It’s been a minute since I shared a media literacy roundup post… So here are a few links to recent blog posts, podcasts and videos I’ve shared and found online worth your time and attention, as well as an upcoming webinar you should join with me!
MediaEd Club: Memes, Warfare, and Propaganda (May 4th)
Sketchnote to AI InfoGraphic
Spot the Bot
“Coding Mars” continues…
“Becoming AI Warriors” on #FutureReady
Digital Defense Against the Dark Arts
MediaEd Club: Memes, Warfare, and Propaganda (May 4th)
One of my life highlights each month is facilitating noontime (ET) Zoom webinars for the MediaEd Club of the Media Education Lab on the first Monday. The topic of our Monday, May 4th meetup is particularly timely, “Memes, Warfare, and Propaganda.”
Update May 5th: The full recorded webinar is available on YouTube!
Have you been paying attention the role MEMES have played / are playing in the information war / “Like War” taking place between the United States and Iran, parallel to kinetic military operations? Give a listen to the excellent April 25th episode of The Listening Post podcast, “Iran’s Infowar: Lego, AI and ever tightening control.” I serendipitously discovered that episode by using a new vibe coded podcast community and discovery platform I’ve been working on, which I’m calling “Podcommons.” Although I’ve shared my code on GitHub I’m not ready for a full-blown announcement… but you’re welcome to check it out early. Once I’ve completed a few more updates I’ll share a formal announcement post here.
The description of the May 4th MediaEd Club meetup is:
As memes migrate from fringe imageboards into the official communication channels of governments and militaries, the grammar of irony, gaming culture, and pop aesthetics is being deployed to normalize dehumanization, justify violence, and wage information warfare. From Iran's Lego propaganda campaigns targeting Western audiences, to White House Studio Ghibli-style cartoons mocking deportation arrests, to video game references etched onto bullet casings by a would-be assassin — the line between joke and weapon has never been harder to locate, or more urgent to teach. What makes memetic warfare so difficult to counter is that its power lies precisely in its ambiguity. The irony-poisoned aesthetic of meme culture gives bad actors plausible deniability — it's just a joke, it's just a meme — while the dehumanizing message lands exactly as intended. And when governments adopt the same tactics, the aesthetics of cruelty get laundered through pop culture until they feel normal. Join the MediaEd Club as we examine how memes have become weapons of power, propaganda, and political manipulation. Through real case studies drawn from recent conflicts and domestic politics, critical frameworks for understanding memetic warfare, and practical classroom strategies, we'll explore what this moment demands of media-literate citizens — and how educators can help learners recognize, contextualize, and resist meme-based manipulation.
More links to recommended, related resources to check out in advance or following the webinar are available on the Media Education Lab’s website. I hope you can join us May 4th!
2. Sketchnote to AI InfoGraphic
I’m a big fan of using sketchnotes to help my students “show what they know with media.”
In the last few weeks, however, I discovered the power of using an AI-powered “app smash” using a hand-drawn sketchnote, Claude AI to compose an image prompt, and Gemini AI to create the AI sketchnote or AI infographic. This is a visual summary of the workflow:
Check out these recent blog posts which share more details:
Sketchnote to AI InfoGraphic (8 April 2026)
Lead4Change Summit Reflections (21 April 2026)
3. Spot the Bot
On April 8th I attended an excellent “Lunch & Learn webinar” hosted by the Center for North Carolina Politics and Public Service at Catawba College, titled “Spot the Bot: How to spot fake accounts and sort fact from fiction in social media.”
I shared a post of takeaways from that event here on Substack and on my “Speed of Creativity” blog, but it’s such an important topic I’m sharing it again in this roundup.
Consider sharing this post with someone in your life who you’d like to help protect from online bad actors and identity theft. My 2022 TEDx talk on “Technology Fear Therapy” focused on ways we can help our family, friends, and community members stay SAFE online. The need to share practical tips and strategies for avoiding online scams as well as misinformation / disinformation is even more urgent today in 2026.
4. “Coding Mars” continues…
We are winding down our spring semester at school, and my middle school computer programming unit on “Coding Mars” (or “Minecraft Mars”) is going better than ever. Last week I recorded a six minute screencast video demonstrating Minecraft MakeCode techniques for building a simulated Martian greenhouse with code and the Minecraft “agent.”
To learn more, in addition to checking out the “Coding Mars” project website and related videos, check out the 2.5 minute video our school communications team created in January 2024 about this ongoing project I’m continuing to iterate on and build year after year. I love teaching middle schoolers how to code!
5. “Becoming AI Warriors” on #FutureReady
How are administrators and teachers at your school responding to the widespread availability and use of artificial intelligence tools today? Again via my Podcommons project and website, I discovered Carl Hooker, Adam Phyall, and Winston Roberts’s recent podcast “Becoming AI Warriors” for Future Ready Schools.
Here are a few quotations from their conversation which resonated with me:
We have to make sure we're designing our environments that give our kids bigger problems to solve, real world problems to solve, because they're going to use it to solve the problems that are in front of them.
and
The kids and the people that are going to win in the end are going to be the ones that have the greatest imaginations and are the ones that can explain their thinking in specific ways.
It’s a great conversation and I recommend it!
6. Digital Defense Against the Dark Arts
Back in February, I wrote a post on my blog I did NOT share here on Substack, “Digital Defense Against the Dark Arts.” Of course this reveals my deep love for the Harry Potter book series and movies, but it also (hopefully) reflects the pivotal role I believe MEDIA LITERACY can and should play in the lives of our students.
The English WikiPedia defines “threat actors” as:
…either a person or a group of people that take part in malicious acts in the cyber realm, including computers, devices, systems, or networks… There are a number of threat actors including: cyber criminals, nation-state actors, ideologues, thrill seekers/trolls, insiders, and competitors.
As much as I might wish we live in a peaceful and non-threatening world, we don’t.
Media literacy can and should be part of our toolkits for not only staying safe in this perilous landscape, but finding ways to thrive and “succeed” as citizens and contributing members of our respective communities.
Stay safe out there, everyone!
If you’re not already, please subscribe to “The EdTech Situation Room,” the podcast I’ve been co-hosting with Jason Neiffer for over 10 years now!
More links to connect and learn with me (Wes Fryer) are available on wesfryer.com/after.