SPRINGFIELD, Vt. – Ben Boyinton, educator, writer, and media literacy scholar will present the next Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) program, “We Are All Being Used! Media Manipulation in the Digital Age” on Tuesday, Oct. 3, at 2 p.m., at the Nolin Murray Center next to St. Mary’s Church on Pleasant Street in Springfield.
Like so many headlines today, this program title is click bait. It is designed to seize your attention by appealing to your emotions. This kind of rhetoric infests our news as well as our politics and social media posts. We will explore how the attention economy and consumerism work to influence our buying (and thus our lives), our politics (the life of the country), and our very sense of self (our mental health). Through dissection of examples, sharing of facts, and open discussion, we will engage about advertising techniques, the economics of the digital age, and the impact of social media.
Boyinton is a high school teacher and has written a book for young people. “The Media and Me” provides readers with the tools and perspectives to be empowered and autonomous media users. The book explores critical inquiry skills to help young people form a multidimensional comprehension of what they read and watch. He will share these basic tools with the adult audience of the OLLI group, helping us all to understand how the media tries to manipulate our thinking, and he will give us some tools to approach what we see and hear with critical thinking skills.
Sponsored by the University of Vermont, OLLI is run by local volunteer members and is geared mainly towards seniors who are 50 years of age and over who enjoy learning for the fun of it. Anyone who would be interested in this type of program, regardless of their age, is welcome.
Pre-registration is highly recommended. We can no longer take any payments onsite at the door. However, if you arrive without having registered, we will not turn you away. We will hand you a form with instructions on how to make payment after the program.
There is a membership series fee. Non-members are welcome and encouraged to attend individual programs for a single program fee.
You may view the entire semester programs by going to www.learn.uvm.edu/olli/springfield. Registration can be done online or by calling 802-656-5817 during regular office hours, Monday – Friday, from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
If you prefer to register by mail, send your contact information (name, address, phone number, and email address) indicating full series membership or which specific programs you wish to attend. Mail this information and your check made out to University of Vermont-OLLI to: OLLI at UVM, 23 Mansfield Ave, Burlington, VT 05401. If mailing in the registration, please allow 10-14 days from the date of mailing check to receipt and processing.
If there are weather related changes to the schedule, you can check the website on the morning of the program.
The University of Vermont expects all participants at UVM sponsored non-credit events, including OLLI, will be vaccinated. Masks are optional. For full health and safety information, go to www.learn.uvm.edu/olli/springfield.
The next program on Wednesday, Oct. 18 will be “Vermont and New Hampshire’s Role in the Underground Railroad” with Michelle Arnosky Sherburne, researcher and author of books on the topic.