Satirical news as a tool for critical literacy: A teaching intervention in the Modern Greek language course (Lower Secondary School)

Abstract

Although satirical news is classified as a form of fake news due to its fabricated content, it differs in its communicative purpose, which primarily involves entertainment and social critique rather than the intentional deception of audiences. Nevertheless, its satirical nature often goes unrecognized, leading readers to perceive such texts as authentic. This paper presents and evaluates a teaching intervention, designed within the framework of critical literacy and grounded in the pedagogy of multiliteracies, implemented in the Modern Greek Language course of the third grade of lower secondary school (2023–2024). The intervention aimed to promote understanding of satire as a genre, explore the features of online media discourse, and empower students as active and critical readers and users of digital texts. The findings highlighted both students’ difficulty in distinguishing satire from serious journalism and the pedagogical potential of the intervention in fostering critical language awareness toward media discourse.