How to Spot Fake News (and Why It Is Important to Do So) Dr. Cuozzo English 11 WHS

What is Fake News, and Why Do People Create It? Fake news articles are generally web-based documents that are intended to look like legitimate news sources for one of several reasons: To drive people to a website in order to attract people to ads, which generates revenue for the website (aka “click bait’) To manipulate people’s understanding of reality, or a specific issue or person, for a political purpose (in other words, to get you think about a situation or person in a certain way, even if that information is not real)

Why is Fake News a Problem? As 21st century citizens, we make countless decisions based on the information we find or are presented with. Some of these are persuasive arguments (including advertising and marketing), and some of it is completely made up, designed to change our thoughts, feelings, or actions What problems our community/state/nation/world face and what causes these problems Who we vote for, what policies we believe will solve our problems, the things we buy, the companies and organizations we support Fake news distorts our understanding of reality, and the internet enables people to manipulate millions of other people around the world very rapidly

What’s New about This? In the past, people got almost all their news from major newspapers, magazines and network TV news, which had professional standards for fact-checking Professional journalists and editors would ruin their reputations and careers for presenting news that was not thoroughly evaluated for reliability Opinions were kept separate from news stories, and journalists attempted to present unbiased information Today, people are bombarded with information from many sources that do not have these standards and are intentionally trying to manipulate others, rather than inform.

Video Overviews https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkwWcHekMdo http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/02/media/fake-news-stories/

How to Spot Fake News and Evaluate the Reliability, Credibility, and Purpose of Information You Find on the Internet Read the articles and listen to the podcast here: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/11/23/503129818/study- finds-students-have-dismaying-inability-to-tell-fake-news-from- real?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium= social

Activity 1: Evaluate Click on this link, read the article, and then rate its reliability from 1 (not at all reliable) to 10 (completely reliable) and give three specific reasons for your rating. http://dailyoccupation.com/2016/10/16/obama-signs-executive-order- banning-pledge-allegiance-schools-nationwide/ Post this on GoogleClassroom.

Activity 2: Locate, Evaluate, and Explain Find three sources of news about a single topic One definitely fake, one questionable, one reliable On your GoogleClassroom post, paste a link to each, and explain your evaluation of the source (Why did you think it was reliable or unreliable? What indicators did you use?) Present to the class Suggestions: Environment/climate change Economy Obamacare Taxes