ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how a group of Mark’s ninth grade students grappled with our third epistemological challenge-evaluating resources, especially the credibility, claims, and evidence of multimodal texts. In particular, we examine the challenges students had in evaluating the claims and credibility of a controversial Internet video, Loose Change 9/11, a well-documented and comprehensive multimedia account that argues the “real story” of September 11, 2001 was covered up by the United States government. Evaluating claims and determining the credibility of multimodal texts, especially on/within the Internet with its “vast network of relations of credibility” (Burbules & Callister, 2000) and ever-expanding reach and impact across the globe, is particularly challenging because these texts mix images, music, graphic arts, video, and print to make sophisticated claims supported by various forms or types of evidence. The challenges are compounded when the text deals with a complicated sociopolitical event.
