Teacher Librarians Critical Literacy and Fake News Richard Beaudry - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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

• n 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

• f 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

• f 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

• rganizations? 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

• f 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.”

Awareness Act

— This is what a fact checker organization states on Awareness

Act:

— “Awareness Act publishes information that cannot be

validated and that is anti-scientific fact. The information provided should be regarded as speculative opinion or propaganda and cannot be substantiated by fact or evidence. It is among the most untrustworthy sources in the media.”

— But it is a popular Fake News website that gained traction

during the last election in the US. It now has over 205 thousand visitors a month.

— They most often publish bogus science stories that put doubt

in the mind of their readers about real scientific research.

Awareness Act

— Internet statistics on Awareness Act – Who reads

the stories from Awareness Act:

— Caucasian Men — Making between $0K to $30K — Between 55 to 65 – and 25 to 34 — With no college degree — Viewed mostly from home

Sites to watch out for

— Fake News - Sources that entirely fabricate

information, disseminate deceptive content, or grossly distort actual news reports.

— Extreme Bias - Sources that come from a

particular point of view and may rely on propaganda, decontextualized information, and

• pinions distorted as facts.

— Conspiracy Theory - Sources that are well-known

promoters of kooky conspiracy theories.

Sites to watch out for

— Junk Science - Sources that promote

pseudoscience, metaphysics, naturalistic fallacies, and other scientifically dubious claims.

— Hate News - Sources that actively promote racism,

misogyny, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination.

Sites to watch out for

— Clickbait - Sources that provide generally credible

content, but use exaggerated, misleading, or questionable headlines, social media descriptions, and/or images.

— Political - Sources that provide generally verifiable

information in support of certain points of view or political orientations.

— Unknown - Sources that have not yet been analyzed

(many of these were suggested by readers/users or are found on other lists and resources). Help us expand our resource by providing us information!

Fact Checking Links

— LinkedIn - A professional networking website where

you can look up the authors of articles and books to see if they're credible.

— FactCheck - A product of the Annenberg Public

Policy Center, this site is terrific for checking up on political claims.

— Politifact - The Pulitzer Prize-winning Politifact

researches the claims of politicians and checks their accuracy.

Fact Checking Links

— Snopes.com - One of the oldest debunking sites on

the Internet, Snopes.com focuses on urban legends, news stories and memes. the also cite their sources at the end of each debunking.

— Hoax-Slayer - Similar to Snopes but tighter in

scope, Hoax-Slayer focuses on email hoaxes, identity theft scams and spam.

— The Washington Post Fact-Checker - While focused

primarily on political facts, it covers specific claims in-depth and with plenty of cross-referencing.

Understanding Why this is Important

— Students will need to evaluate online material for

credibility if they are to build evidence in their

• arguments. Much of their research will occur online,

meaning they will need to understand what qualifies as good evidence to help support their thoughts. Research also challenges students to think critically about their topic and to determine what points are relevant to their

• research. Being able to construct an effective, relevant

argument not only helps students in future academic work, but it also helps them become more persuasive and to communicate clearly in other areas of their lives. Being able to identify and select credible information can be useful to their professional credibility.

And finally – the war against the press

— As we know, the press is being portrayed as fake for

reporting news items that don’t represent the collective thinking at the White House. President Trump and Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway have been caught several times changing facts or making them up.

— “We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at

what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden,” the president

• said. “They took in large numbers, they’re having

problems like they never thought possible,” he said. February 18, 2017

War against the Press

— "He did that because two Iraqi nationals came to this

country, joined ISIS, traveled back to the Middle East to get trained and refine their terrorism skills and come back here and were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre of taking innocent soldiers' lives away. Kelly Anne Conway – February 6th, 2017

— Problem is there never were any terrorist attacks in

either Sweden and Bowling Green. Having the Press question these events infuriated the President who is retaliating by calling for a boycott of the media and barring certain news agencies from the White House.

War against the Press

— Tweet on February 17th, 2017 by the President — "The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes,

@NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!" he wrote.

— And just after his news conference denouncing the

press for using unnamed sources this happened: “The Associated Press said that Mr. Trump’s speech was delivered just hours after members of his own staff held a press briefing in which they refused to attach their names to the information.”

Tweets of notice

Tweets of Notice

Can this happen in Canada?

— 6 reporters spied on by Quebec provincial police – CBC News

– November 2nd, 2016

— Cellphones of journalists tracked in 2013 following complaint

from union boss

— Parliamentary press gallery pushes back against plan to

fingerprint, screen reporters – CBC News – February 24th, 2017

— MacCharles said there has never been a security incident in

the Commons involving a journalist and that new policy should not be based on "hypotheticals."

— Screening could deny or limit access to the decision-makers,

committees and witnesses on Parliament Hill that are critical for reporting.

In Short

— Navigating the Internet can be tricky for students,

especially when it comes to determining the validity

• f information out of the wealth of knowledge

available online. Creating lessons that exercise students’ evaluation skills will help them become better web consumers and researchers, and it may help them in their later academic and professional careers.

Teacher Librarians – Critical Literacy and Fake News

— Richard Beaudry — rbeaudry@sd35.bc.ca