Engagement
Engagement: In the engagement stage of the critical process, you take some action that connects your critical interpretations and evaluations with your responsibility as a citizen. What kind of information will you look for before you vote? What will you avoid? What sources will you recommend to your family and friends? And (most importantly), will you vote? Americans need better information literacy, but then they also need to actually vote. Between 52 and 62 percent of the country’s voting-age citizens voted in each presidential election in the past fifty years. That is relatively dismal, compared to 87 percent of the voting age population in Belgium, 83 percent in Sweden, 80 percent in Denmark, 79 percent in Australia, 78 percent in South Korea, 69 percent in Germany, and 68 percent in France. About 42 percent of eligible voters did not vote in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Something to consider: Do you think the quality (or lack of quality) in news media stories is part of the problem getting people to vote?