The OCtech Library Blog

Hey all you cool cats and kittens....

...Tiger King on Netflix has provided us with a unique opportunity to engage in real-time, real-life information literacy and open pedagogic practices. Recently an example of an open pedagogical "non-disposable" assignment (something which retains greater meaning because it's created with the intention of being shared with more people than a single instructor, as well as with the ability for future use/adaptation by others) was suggested to us: Have your students go online, and take a screen recording on a social media site of a minute or so following a major hashtag trend. Students can then break down the comments and discuss what they are seeing, trends in content, etc. and share this with others. It provides an interesting record of a split-second culture trend that probably wouldn't ordinarily be captured, as well as opportunity for critical thinking and analysis. So where does Tiger King come into this? Possibly as a result of our current quarantine, the hashtag #TigerKing has been trending. Along with this is a rare opportunity to really examine information literacy at all levels. How many people have made up their minds concerning the probable guilt/innocence of the main female character in the series? How many people have come away from the documentary with the solid sense that owning a wild animal is wrong, and how many people have come away with the feeling that "Joe Exotic" doesn't belong in prison and have added their name to the 18,238 (and counting as of 4/22/2020) signatures on the petition to "Free Joe Exotic"? ...This brings us to a fundamental issue of information literacy: After watching this documentary, how many people decided to fact check the information gleaned from the series before making up their minds about the guilt/innocence of people involved? Are there trends in the education levels, majors, socioeconomic statuses of such individuals? How much responsibility for accurate story-telling relies with producers, distributors, and finally, us the consumers? ...If a series which bends the truth to fit a particular story-arch becomes such a sensational money-maker, does that negate any ethical standards because, capitalism? Finally, since this is about Tiger King and information literacy, it would be remiss to exclude the information which can be gained from the three below links covering biology, psychology, and law (information which happens to have been forgotten or glossed over in the Tiger King series): 

1) From Wired magazine's youtube channel "Why Captive Tigers Can't Be Introduced Into The Wild"

2) From the channel of Dr. Todd Grande (an associate professor at Wilmington University): Tiger King Analysis| Mental Health and Personality Factors

3) Real Lawyer Reacts to Tiger King // LegalEagle youtube channel

These videos present important information that was excluded from the "docu-series". However (perhaps because of it's "true crime documentary" label), most people have taken the information presented in this series as fact. Which pushes to another extremely important aspect of information literacy: Fact-checking "non-fiction" materials. It's especially easy even for the most experienced and educated of us to get caught up in the knee-jerk reaction of jumping to conclusions after sitting through a documentary, feeling as though we have all the information we need. The problem of course is that without other sources telling us directly, we need to be able to figure out when there is additional information we don't have. Remembering to "slow our roll" and take time to review the accuracy of the information we are given is extremely important, especially in this day and age of "instant information gratification" courtesy of high speed internet. Finally, this simply goes to prove that it's important to always give a CRAAP: