1. Critical Thinking, the News, and Social Media
Sarah Renn
FYE Program Coordinator
First Year Programs & Learning Communities

2. Session Objectives
Attendees will reflect on their own experience with and preferences for news sources.
Attendees will identify and evaluate strategies for differentiating real and fake news.
Attendees will identify resources and strategies for increasing the ability of FYE students to critically think about news and social media.

3. Initiation: Where do you get your news?
What are the benefits and limitations of this type of news?

4. Different Types of “News”
Fake News
Knowingly publishes untrue information while claiming it to be true, usually to drive traffic to a website or to propagate disinformation.
Misleading News
Contains some truths that are taken out of context.
Satirical News
Covers current events, but makes fun of the tone and content of traditional news. Satirical news isn’t meant to mislead.

5. Quick Write
What are potential consequences when fake news goes viral?
Do you think you could spot fake news or would you be fooled? How aware are you of your biases, which may predispose you to accept certain information as fact without verifying it?

6. Video: How False News Can Spread

7. Activity: Separating good news from fake or misleading news
Is the story reliable? Is it “good information”?

8. Example #1

9. Comments
This isn’t the real ABC News. “com.co” means the site is registered in Columbia and the address given is for the Westboro Baptist Church.

10. Who is the Author? - http://abcnews.com.co/author/abcnews/

11. Example #2 - https://web. archive

12. Google the photo to cross-check it

13. Google results

14. Discussion How difficult was it to spot questionable information?
Why should our FYE students care enough to do the research to determine fake vs. real stories?

15. Recent Research
Stanford's Graduate School of Education, 18-month study, how well middle school, high school, and university students judge validity of internet information
University students had to:
Evaluate an article
Research a claim about a controversial topic
Determine website reliability
Identify strengths/weaknesses of a social media video
Identify the veracity of information tweeted on social media
Stanford History Education Group. (2016, November 22). Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from

16. Their Findings for University Students
“Bleak”
Example: determine how reliable
MinimumWage.com is for providing
information on minimum wage policy
and employment rates. 93% of college students didn’t realize
that the organization was affiliated with a DC lobbying firm.

18. Newseum’s 6 Consumer Questions
Who made this?
How was this made?
Why was this made?
When was this made?
What is this missing?
Where do I go from here?
Schulten, K. (2015, October 02). Skills and Strategies | Fake News vs. Real News: Determining the Reliability of Sources. Retrieved December 21, 2016, from strategies-fake-news-vs-real-news-determining-the-reliability-of-sources/?_r=0

19. Activity – How accurate are your social media feeds?
Using the Newseum’s framework, review some of the information that appears on your social media feeds. How reliable is the information? How complete is the information?

20. Activity Debrief
How did your social media news feed do in terms of reliability?
Does a pattern emerge of the types of information sources that generally seem trustworthy and those that generally do not?
What types of visual or written clues help you determine if a source of information is trustworthy or not?
Have you retweeted/forwarded/reposted anything that may be fake or misleading?

21. For Fun – NYT’s weekly News Quiz
Three of the education-related headlines below appeared in The Times August One is from the satirical paper The Onion. Which is the fake news story?
(a) 20% of New York State Students Opted Out of Standardized Tests This Year
(b) Board Says Players at Northwestern Can’t Unionize
(c) Online University Allows Students to Amass Crippling Debt at Own Pace
(d) Racial Wealth Gap Persists Despite Degree, Study Says
Schulten, K. (2015, October 02). Skills and Strategies | Fake News vs. Real News: Determining the Reliability of Sources. Retrieved December 21, 2016, from determining-the-reliability-of-sources/?_r=0

22. Quick Write closure
Review your original quick write. Did you detect fake and misleading information as well as you thought you would? How critically do you look at news that confirms your beliefs?
What steps will you take in the future to test the reliability and veracity of your news sources?

23. Resources
Anti-Defamation League lesson plans. from
Davis, W. (n.d.). Fake Or Real? How To Self-Check The News And Get The Facts. Retrieved December 06, 2016, from how-to-self-check-the-news-and-get-the-facts
Newseum’s Consumer Questions. BIN-Consumers-Questions.pdf
Stanford History Education Group study. Executive Summary.
TEDEd Video: How false news can spread. noah-tavlin#digdeeper
TEDEd Video: How to choose your news. damon-brown
Zimdars, M. (2017). False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and/or Satirical “News” Sources.

24. Works Cited
Anti-Defamation League. (n.d.). Fake News and What We Can Do about It. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from
About Us - Newslo - politicot.com. (n.d.). Retrieved February 20, 2017, from hpoliticot.com/about-us/
Breaking: Tens of Thousands of Fraudulent Clinton Votes Found in Ohio Warehouse. Retrieved on February 20, 2017 from: tens-of-thousands-of-fraudulent-clinton-votes-found-in-ohio-warehouse/
Center for American Progress. (2015, November 17). RELEASE: Gun Owners Overwhelmingly Support Background Checks, See NRA as Out of Touch, New Poll Finds. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from
Center for News Literacy. (n.d.). Introducing IMVAIN. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from
Davis, W. (n.d.). Fake Or Real? How To Self-Check The News And Get The Facts. Retrieved December 06, 2016, from the-news-and-get-the-facts
Rustling, J. (2016, November 11). Obama Signs Executive Order Banning The National Anthem From Sporting Events Nationwide. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from banning-national-anthem/
Rustling, J. (2016, December 12). Dr. Jimmy Rustling. Retrieved February 21, 2017, from
Schulten, K. (2015, October 02). Skills and Strategies | Fake News vs. Real News: Determining the Reliability of Sources. Retrieved December 21, 2016, from strategies-fake-news-vs-real-news-determining-the-reliability-of-sources/?_r=0
Silverman, C. (2016, December 30). Here Are 50 Of The Biggest Fake News Hits On Facebook From Retrieved February 20, 2017, from ?utm_term=.pomReMGd1n#.enlkZAWQ85
Stanford History Education Group. (2016, November 22). Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from
Tavlin, N. (n.d.). How false news can spread - Noah Tavlin. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from
Wikipedia. (2017, February 12). ABCnews.com.co. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from
Zimdars, M. (2017). False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and/or Satirical “News” Sources. Retrieved February 20, 2017 from: