Breaking News Consumer's Handbook: Fake News Edition | WNYC

Fake news | Media | Podcast

November 18, 2016

Breaking News Consumer Handbook: Fake News Edition

(WNYC/WNYC)

 Summary Transcript

  
Drawing a distinction between fake and real news is going to be hard for those Facebook and Google employees tasked with banning offending sites. But it shouldn’t be so hard for you, the consumer.

Melissa Zimdars, assistant professor of communication and media at Merrimack College, has made a list of more than a hundred problematic news sites, along with tips for sorting the truthful from the troublesome. She talks with Brooke about how to be a savvy news consumer in a misinformation-filled world. Read more (and listen to the podcast)

Librarians take up arms against fake news | Jerry Large February 6, 2017

Fact checking | Literacy | Critical reading | Journalism

Tips for spotting fake news in the Upper School library at Lakeside School in north Seattle. (Jerry Large/The Seattle Times) 

 

Librarians are stepping into the breach to help students become smarter evaluators of the information that floods into their lives. That’s increasingly necessary in an era in which fake news is a constant.

 

Janelle Hagen is a school librarian whose job goes far beyond checking out books. She and many other librarians are equipping students to fight through lies, distortion and trickery to find their way to truth.

Helping students become smarter evaluators of the information that floods into their lives has become increasingly necessary in an era in which fake news is a constant.

Two University of Washington professors recently announced a new class that will focus on the ways data are misused to mislead the public. Younger students may need guidance even more.

Hagen, the middle-school librarian at Lakeside School in Seattle, said the students she serves are online every day, and they need to be able to figure out what’s trustworthy and what isn’t. Read more...

Truth and Lies in Media and Politics: A Reading List

Breaking the News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy
Do Facts Matter?: Information and Misinformation in American Politics
Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now that the Facts aren’t the Facts, Experts are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room is the Room
Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy
Standard Deviations: Flawed Assumptions, Tortured Data, and Other Ways to Lie with Statistics
When the Press Fails: Political Power and the News Media from Iraq to Katrina
It Ain’t Necessarily So: How the Media Remake our Picture of Reality
Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage
Distant Witness: Social Media, The Arab Spring and a Journalism Revolution
Information War: American Propaganda, Free Speech and Opinion Control Since 9/11
What Liberal Media?: The Truth About Bias and the News
Deciding What’s True: the Rise of Political Fact-Checking in American Journalism

shout out to our friends at the Brooklyn Public Library for their topic guide On new, media, and truth

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Here's how to outsmart fake news in your Facebook feed

By AJ Willingham, CNN
Friday, November 18, 2016 

(CNN)Just because it's on the internet doesn't make it true. It seems so simple, but if everyone knew that, Facebook and Google wouldn't have to pull bogus news sites from their advertising algorithms and people wouldn't breathlessly share stories that claim Donald Trump is a secret lizard person or Hillary Clinton is an android in a pantsuit.

It doesn't have to be this way. Fake news is actually really easy to spot -- if you know how. Consider this your New Media Literacy Guide.

NOTE: As we put this together, we sought the input of two communications experts: Dr. Melissa Zimdars, an associate professor at Merrimack College in Massachusetts whose dynamic list of unreliable news sites has gone viral, and Alexios Mantzarlis, the head of the International Fact-Checking Network at the Poynter Institute.

First, know the different types of misleading and false news

1. Fake news
These are the easiest to debunk and often come from known sham sites that are designed to look like real news outlets. They may include misleading photographs and headlines that, at first read, sound like they could be real.
2. Misleading news
These are the hardest to debunk, because they often contain a kernel of truth: A fact, event or quote that has been taken out of context. Look for sensational headlines that aren't supported by the information in the article.
3. Highly partisan news
A type of misleading news, this may be an interpretation of a real news event where the facts are manipulated to fit an agenda.
4. Clickbait
The shocking or teasing headlines of these stories trick you into clicking for more information -- which may or may not live up to what was promised.
5. Satire
This one is tough, because satire doesn't pretend to be real and serves a purpose as commentary or entertainment. But if people are not familiar with a satire site, they can share the news as if it is legitimate. Read more...