1. How to Spot Fake News and Train Students to be Educated News Consumers
Fatema Baldiwala

2. Warm up questions Where do you get your news?
How do you define fake news?
Why this sudden interest in fake news?
What are some real consequences of this?
What can YOU do to thwart fake news?

3. 1.79 billion people use Facebook

4. Definitions:
One of the more colorful definitions of fake news comes from PolitiFact: "Fake news is made-up stuff, masterfully manipulated to look like credible journalistic reports that are easily spread online to large audiences willing to believe the fictions and spread the word.“
Oxford Dictionaries selected "post-truth" as its word of the year and defined it as the state of affairs when "objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief."

5. Sudden Interest in fake news?
No, Fake news has been around since print media started, even before internet……
But now……
Our 4th Estate (Journalistic integrity) is under attack.

6. Consequences Personal (health and mental well being)
Societal (racist bigotry)
Democracy (our ideals)

7. Examples of personal consequences

8. Societal Consequences
Rhetoric of Hate to marginalize one segment of the population

9. 4th estate under attack
Democratic ideals: freedom / independence of the press questioned

10. Our Contribution
What can we do to protect ourselves, our neighbors, our fellow citizens, and our democracy from the onslaught of Fake News?

11. Practice your literacy skills
“There’s a real darkness here if we give up on facts,”
“Standing up for facts is a kind of patriotic act, and a necessary one.“
Quote by:
Brendan Nyhan
Professor of Darthmouth College who studies fact-checking