Teacher Librarians – Critical Literacy and Fake News Richard Beaudry February 27, 2017
1. Identifying the issue
A brief history of Online Hoaxes Hoaxes: They have been around since early history – The Donation of Constantine in 776. Debunked in 1440. Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography in 1887. Debunked in 1917. The BBC: Spaghetti Harvest in Ticino, Italy (CNN called this broadcast “the biggest hoax that any reputable news establishment ever pulled.”). The first websites appear in 1989 and not surprisingly, website hoaxes appear shortly after. Many students and teachers are probably familiar with classical hoaxes such as these two:
Online Hoaxes
Online Hoaxes
Origins of Fake News Fake news has been a trending topic in popular media and the academic community. The popularity and quick dissemination of misleading, misinformed and false news stories in our social media feeds makes fake news harder to ignore.
Uninformed vs Misinformed Actor Denzel Washington was recently quoted as saying: “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you’re misinformed.” President Trump on the other hand has recently stated: “I love the poorly educated. We’re the smartest people, we’re the most loyal people.” And were do these people get their news? When it comes to news distribution, Facebook’s share is big: 66% of Facebook’s 1,71 billion users receive news from the platform.
Facebook and news access Facebook reaches 67% of US adults so it equates to 44% of the US population getting its news from Facebook. Facebook’s corporate vision is to get users to stay on its platform by offering their own in-house news sites and therefore providing a breeding ground for fake news sites. Fake News : Deliberately publishing hoaxes, propaganda, and disinformation as real news. Many Fake News sites originate or are promoted from Russia, Macedonia, Romania and the US.
Website Spoofing Some websites use spoofing, set up to make visitors believe they are visiting trusted news sources like ABC news, MSNBC. ABCnews.com.co – Fake News site abcnews.go.com – Real News site
Clickbait Clickbait – Online content whose main purpose is to attract attention and encourage visitors to click on a link to a particular webpage.
Fake News on Facebook
Can students recognize Fake News? Actually, no. A recent study carried out by Stanford’s Graduate School of Education assessed more than 7,800 responses from middle school, high school and college students in 12 US states on their ability to assess information sources. Researchers were “shocked” by students’ “stunning and dismaying consistency” to evaluate information at even as basic a level as distinguishing advertisements from articles.
Why can’t we decipher Fake News? Hosted on websites that often followed design conventions of online news media, with anodyne titles such as “Civic Tribune” and “Life Event Web” to give the semblance of legitimacy, the stories are geared to travel on social media. With clicks come profit: a man running a string of fake news sites from Los Angeles told National Public Radio that he made as much as US$30,000 a month from advertising that rewards high traffic. More than 100 pro-Trump fake news websites were being run by teenagers in one town in Macedonia.
Misinformation or Alternate Facts
Misinformation Misinformation : False or inaccurate information, especially that which is deliberately intended to deceive. A recent study showed that Fox News viewers are the most uninformed of all news consumers. Here are a few of the most common misconceptions held by fans of Fox News: Our Kenyan-born Muslim president was plotting to serve third term Pope Francis’ endorsement of Donald Trump helped avert election-rigging.
Alternate Facts " Alternative facts " is a phrase used by U.S. Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway during a Meet the Press interview on January 22, 2017, in which she defended White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's false statement about the attendance at Donald Trump's inauguration as President of the United States. Trump claims 1.5 million people came to his inauguration. The estimated turnout was 250,000
Alternate Facts
What makes a news story Fake 1. The information can’t be verified and may or may not having links in it tracing its sources. 2. Fake news appeal to emotion. It makes the reader angry, or happy, or scared. The authors don’t expect you to fact-check. 3. The authors aren’t usually journalists or experts, but paid trolls. 4. It is usually a news item that can’t be found anywhere else. Real news outlets would not carry the information
Categories of Fake News CATEGORY 1: Fake, false, or regularly misleading websites that are shared on Facebook and social media. Some of these websites may rely on “outrage” by using distorted headlines and decontextualized or dubious information in order to generate likes, shares, and profits. CATEGORY 2: Websites that may circulate misleading and/or potentially unreliable information CATEGORY 3: Websites which sometimes use clickbait-y headlines and social media descriptions CATEGORY 4: Satire/comedy sites, which can offer important critical commentary on politics and society, but have the potential to be shared as actual/literal news
How to Fact-check 1. Check the credentials of the author(s). You should check Google or LinkedIn to see if the author has any expertise or can speak on the subject. 2. Look for bias. Does the article lean towards a particular point of view. Is it giving you the whole story? Are the authors looking to argue their point of view or stop you from giving your point of view? 3. Check the dates: Is the article or news item recent? Is it outdated? Is it relevant to something else?
How to fact check 4. Check the sources. Are they from reputable organizations? Are they from think tanks that are biased in their research? Which group do they represent? Use the CRAAP Test – Currency, Relevance, Accuracy, Authority and Purpose
CRAAP
Verifying news stories (or sites you should get to know) FactCheck.org: monitors the accuracy of U.S. political stories. PolitiFact: verifies political news stories. Snopes: fact-checks Internet rumours and stories. This will determine whether that post your cousin shared on Facebook re: gun violence in America has any merit.
Spotting a Fake News Story 1. Check the domain name. Does it look strange? Those ending unusual domains such as “.com.co” are fake news. 2. Refer to the ‘About Us’ area on a website to see what it says, or refer to the websites above for more information on the story or source. 3. Read multiple news sources to see how (or if) they are reporting on the same story.
Spotting a Fake News Story Writing Style Analysis . Does the website follow AP Style Guide or another style guide? Typically, lack of style guide may indicate an overall lack of editing or fact- checking process. Does it frequently use ALL CAPS in headlines and/or body text? Does the headline or body of the text use words like WOW!, SLAUGHTER!, DESTROY!? This stylistic practice and these types of hyperbolic word choices are often used to create emotional responses with readers that is avoided in more traditional styles of journalism. Aesthetic Analysis . Many fake and questionable news sites utilize very bad design. Usually this means screens are cluttered with text and heavy-handed photo- shopping or badly made digital images.
Spotting a Fake News Story Social Media Analysis. Look up the website on Facebook. Do the headlines and posts rely on sensational or provocative language-- aka clickbait-- in order to attract attention and encourage likes, click throughs, and shares? Do the headlines and social media descriptions match or accurately reflect the content of the linked article?
Gosford Australia Egyptian Hieroglyphs
Gosford Australia Egyptian Hieroglyphs This curious item appeared as a new item on Facebook this weekend. It stipulates that Egyptian Hieroglyphs have been found in Australia. This comes from a news item that appeared in local Australian papers back in 2012. It was quickly debunked as it was proven that the hieroglyphs were recently made and some soldiers ate a nearby base admitted that they were having a little fun. At the time, mystic websites (Ancient Code) and conspiracy/bogus science websites (Crystal Links) tried to play up the find and explain why these symbols were found.
Gosford Australia Egyptian Hieroglyphs Awarenessact.com is a proven Fake News website with a long history of hoaxes. Giving itself a five year margin they have resurrected this story with a twist that should make Fake News enthusiasts happy. It has to do with the history of the world. Awareness Act states: ”This goes against all current historical records meaning these records are in for some major changes.” “These hieroglyphs are proof that the Egyptians actually traveled the world long before Christopher Columbus was thought of.”
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