SAILS Exam – Information Literacy

Prepare: Knowing how to thoroughly research a topic is extremely important while achieving your education. You may be asked to support your information with peer-reviewed scholarly resources, but how can you find this type of resource? The Ashford University Library allows you to search through different avenues to find the requested types of resources. You can narrow your search by the author, year published, title, subject, and by indicating what type of resource you are looking for. You even have access to a librarian if you need some guidance in finding more resources on your topic.

Reflect: Given that you have been in college for awhile, it’s time to reflect on what you have learned through the use of the Ashford University Library in relation to how you learned to acquire new information from a variety of sources.

Write: This week, you will take the Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy Skills (SAILS) Exam. This exam is not graded, and your results are anonymous. The exam will exit from your screen immediately after completion, and you will not receive feedback or results. This is a nationally-normed, standardized exam for students in universities all over the United States. The results of this assessment will guide Ashford University in developing the best possible library resources and research methodologies training. Results will be published (in aggregate) on Ashford’s assessment website. Your participation is voluntary, so thank you if you choose to participate. Click on the link in your online course to access the SAILS Exam (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..

After completing the SAILS Exam, in at least two paragraphs (of five or more sentences each),

· Describe your experiences using resources, including concerns encountered when conducting academic research through the Ashford University Library. Areas of concern may include developing a research strategy, using the search function within a database, or evaluating sources.

· Explain how using the Ashford University Library has improved your experience in conducting research. For example, you could identify and explain how specific tutorials that you have used have helped improve your ability to conduct research.

The Information Literacy Assignment

· Must include at least two paragraphs (of at least five sentences each) that respond to the two prompts, and that are formatted according to APA style (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..

· Must include a separate title page (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. with the following: 

o Title of paper

o Student’s name

o Course name and number

o Instructor’s name

o Date submitted

o Running header with page numbers

· Must have no more than 15% quoted material in the body of your essay based on the Turnitin report.

· A reference page (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. must be used when citing specific sections and/or tutorials of the Ashford Writing Center.

. WITH nursingessayswriters.com AND GET AN AMAZING DISCOUNT

“Are you looking for this answer? We can Help click Order Now”

On Halloween eve in 1938, there was an adaptation of H.G. Well’s 1898 novel “War of the Worlds” on the radio series “Mercury Theatre of the Air”.  Orson Welles produced, hosted, and acted in this series, which adapted mystery, science fiction and other drama for radio. Welles aired the 1898 Martian invasion novel (War of the Worlds) in the style of a radio news program. For people who missed the opening disclaimer, the program sounded like a real news report!

The production was scripted in the form of fake news flashes that repeatedly interrupted musical recordings. The first news flash reported strange activity sighted on Mars. The next interruption was an urgent message saying a meteor had crashed near Grover’s Mills, New Jersey. Then came a “live” report from the New Jersey site saying it wasn’t a meteor at all but Martians with death-ray guns who had just killed one thousand people. Remember, all of this was scripted and it was an adaptation of an earlier novel. The Mercury Theatre of the Air regularly adapted novels to perform for this radio program.

Even though there had been a strong disclaimer at the beginning of the broadcast saying the story was only make-believe, there were some real consequences. The radio play was misinterpreted by some to be an actual news story. People crowded into churches, highways became jam-packed with cars, and many people put on gas masks. In one unlucky town in Washington State, an actual power failure magnified the frenzy and horror. Thousands of people, believing they were under attack by Martians, flooded newspaper offices and radio and police stations with calls, asking how to flee their city or how they should protect themselves from “gas raids.” Scores of adults reportedly required medical treatment for shock and hysteria. There were even reports of people committing suicide out of fear of the Martians invading New Jersey.

Instructions

After listening to a part of the broadcast (see below), answer the following questions in  4 – 5 pages double spaced.

• Your written responses should be a minimum of 4 pages (if you include all the questions, please do not count this in the page count. If you use 1/4 of the page for your name and title, please do not include this in the page count). Please us 12 point font, 1 inch margins, double spaced. 

You may want to read the following article for further information about the radio broadcast before answering the questions: National Geographic article: “War of the Worlds”: Behind the 1938 Radio Show Panic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2005/06/war-of-the-worlds-behind-the-panic/ 

For this assignment, listen to about 15 minutes of the broadcast War of the Worlds. (Pay attention to the first 11 seconds, from the  beginning to 0:11 – when it is introduced as a show. Listeners who missed the introduction and disclaimer that this was a broadcast based on a novel were more likely to believe this was true.)

War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast

Questions:

1. What skills are involved in being a radio listener? In other words, how is ‘reading’ or interpreting the radio program different from ‘reading’ a television program?” Discuss the differences.
2. Comment on what elements would have been familiar to the listeners and what elements contributed to the panic.
3. Were these people media illiterate? Or did the Mercury Theatre broadcast play against people’s media literacy? (That is, you had to know something of the conventions to make it “real.”) (The National Geographic article discusses this a bit).
4. Was this (unintended?) duping of the American public by Welles’s Halloween broadcast something that could have happened only in the 1930s? Have Americans become more sophisticated in their consumption of media? Have you heard about misinformation that has been passed on via the Internet as if it were correct information?
5. Discuss any other comments or reactions to this radio broadcast, which is one of the most famous of all time

. WITH nursingessayswriters.com AND GET AN AMAZING DISCOUNT

“Are you looking for this answer? We can Help click Order Now”