Fake News: Teaching Students How to evaluate information Inspired by Heather Lister and susan Brooks-young’s presentations at the ncce 2018 conference Presenter: Peter g. mohn March 9, 2018

Fake news spreads farther, faster & deeper Published in Science – study by MIT Researchers Falsehoods & Truths from 2006 – 2017 Fact checking organizations had to agreement 95-98% of the time Truth spread up to 1,000 times; top 1% of falsehoods 1,000 – 100,000 Politics represented 45,000 of the 126,000 cascades 1 account started 4,700 false rumors False rumors start with young, unverified accounts with a small following Falsehoods contain more novelty than truth Bots accelerate true & false news at the same rate; designed to increase anarchy in online social systems Early studies have shown labeling news as false might increase its spread Guarino, Ben. Fake news spreads ‘farther, faster, deeper’ than truth, new study finds. Washington Post picked up by The Seattle Times, March 8, 2018. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/science/fake-news-spreads-farther-faster-deeper-than-truth-new-study-finds/. Accessed March 9, 2018.

Fake news? That’s a very old story Opinion piece by Robert G. Parkinson in The Washington Post, November 25, 2016 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fake-news-thats-a-very-old-story/2016/11/25/c8b1f3d4-b330-11e6-8616-52b15787add0_story.html?utm_term=.e2b6d098f0ae An 1762 painting of Benjamin Franklin. (Associated Press)

Fake news = lies or mistruths We should probably stop using the phrase “fake news” and tell students fake news are lies: Out right lies (falsehoods) Half-Truths Misleading articles meant to muddy the waters or to create outrage

Stanford study results Only 25% of high school and college students could judge the credibility of information online https://ed.stanford.edu/news/stanford-researchers-find-students-have- trouble-judging-credibility-information-online

Petting zoo Hero, part 2 Nathan for You released a video showing a pig rescuing a goat This is what happened once this video was posted online http://www.cc.com/video-clips/tgvo9h/nathan-for-you-petting-zoo-hero-pt-- 2

Petting zoo hero, part 1 However, the Nathan for You video was a complete hoax It was an ad the was made as advertisement for a Petting Zoo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2My_HOP-bw

In fake fact era, schools teach the abc’s of news literacy Article by Issie Lapowsky in Wired.com. June 7, 2017 https://www.wired.com/2017/06/fake-fact-era-schools-teach-abcs-news-literacy/ Getty Image

Is this story share-worthy? Lesson from Newseum Is This Story Share-Worthy? Flowchart Lesson at https://newseumed.org/activity/is-this-story-share-worthy-flowchart-mlbp/ Students use an infographic to gauge the value of a news story and weigh what they should do with it. GRADE LEVEL: Middle and high school TIME: 30-60 minutes MATERIALS: Is This Story Share-Worthy? flowchart, either printed on large paper or available to view on a screen(s) (download); Is This Story Share-Worthy? worksheet, one per group (download); news stories for students to evaluate (at least one per group); internet access PREPARE Review the Is This Story Share-Worthy? flowchart, including the supporting information for each question (located on the right hand side). Select a variety of news stories for students to evaluate using the flowchart. Ideally, the stories should include a mix of fake news, poor quality news, opinion journalism, biased news and high quality stories. Make copies of the Is This Story Share-Worthy? worksheet (one per group, or more if they will evaluate more than one story). Newseum ED Flowchart

Website evaluation tools under exploring information California State University's CRAAP Web Site Evaluation Tool Kathy Schrock's Guide to The 5Ws of Web Site Evaluation Kathy Schrock's Guide ABCs of Web Site Evaluation ICYouSee: T is for Thinking University of California at Berleley's Evaluating Resources RADCAB - Your Vehicle for Information Evaluation Acadia University's Credible Sources Count! Warren Township School District's Web Site Evaluation Links & Hoaxes

Channel one’s blog lesson: how to spot fake news https://www.channelone.com/blog_post/lesson-plan-how-to-spot-fake-news/

10 ways to spot a fake news article (Easybib blog post) Is the article missing citations, references and links? Is the author’s name missing? If the author’s name is listed, are they a trustworthy individual? What can you find in the “About Us” section of the website? Are there spelling or grammatical errors found in the text? Are there any direct quotes that are incorrectly used or taken out of context? Can you find a similar article on the Internet? Does the article only showcase one side of an argument? Does the headline not match the content of the article? Is the story completely outrageous?

Checkology: Ten questions for fake news detection check list http://www.thenewsliteracyproject.org/sites/default/files/GO- TenQuestionsForFakeNewsFINAL.pdf

Evaluating web authors The Internet is full of web sites that contain biased points of views Use these two web sites to discuss author bias Junk Science. SourceWatch: Junk Science.

Fake news teaching resources William Patterson University’s David & Lorraine Cheng Library http://guides.wpunj.edu/c.php?g=615053&p=4276858

Evaluating numbers and words Spurious Correlations  Misleading Graphs: Real Life Examples  Evaluating Words The New Yorker's article, How Headlines Change the Way We Think Fight Fake News YouTube video on How to Choose Your News Newseum to view front pages of daily newspapers GPHS LMC’s Online Resources and click on Newspapers

Fact checking websites Politifact Snopes Fact Checker AllSides: Balanced News ProPublica OpenSecrets (data on Campaign Finance) The Sunlight Foundation The Washington Post Fact Checker Truth or Fiction Urban Legends

Fact checking sources using conservative and liberal sources Media Matters (liberal group following conservative news) News Busters (conservative group following liberal news)

resources Brooks-Young, Susan. Recognizing Lies: Literacy in the Post-Truth Era. NCCE 2018. http://www.bagtheweb.com/b/92LfKV . Lester, Heather. Fake News – Hack Research. Slide show presented at NCCE 2018. https://raindrop.io/collection/2186989#0 . Mohn, Peter. Mr. Mohn’s Literacy Corner. Glacier Peak High School Library Media Center. https://www.sno.wednet.edu/Page/2409 .