You already see dozens of messages before lunch: a story on your phone, a poster in the corridor, a clip shared in a group chat. Today is about what those messages are doing to you, not just what they say. You will learn to spot the techniques a piece uses when it wants you to feel something, believe something, or act fast.

Persuasion is not the same as lying. A piece can be partly true and still push you. These are common techniques you will hunt for today:

1. Big promise — a dramatic claim with little proof, or one story sold as proof for everyone ("changed my life in three days").
2. Borrowed authority — a title or expert sound that is vague ("scientists say", "officially approved").
3. Big numbers — likes, shares or percentages used as if they were evidence.
4. Hurry, hurry — a fake deadline so you act before you check.
5. Loaded words — language chosen to make you feel fear, pride, guilt or anger.
6. Tiny truth — the honest limit buried in small print or at the end.

Work through four invented pieces on screen. Tap each zone of the piece. When a technique is hiding there, it is revealed with a short explanation. Collect the techniques you find and use the discussion prompts to say what the piece wants you to feel and who gains if you believe it. The set is mixed on purpose: some pieces will sound right to you, and some will not. Judge the technique either way.

Talk these through as a class.

1. Which technique turned up most often across the four pieces?
2. On a piece you already agreed with, was it harder or easier to admit a technique was at work?
3. Compared with a news article or a poster from earlier lessons, what is a short social post good at, and what is it weak at, when it comes to news and information?

Today you named techniques pieces use to persuade: big promise, borrowed authority, big numbers, hurry-hurry, loaded words, and tiny truth. You practised on invented posts that argued different sides, so the skill was the technique, not the team you already backed. Next you will put that skill to work on a full media case.