Tag: fake news

Posted in digital citizenship, fact-checking, fake news, media literacy, parents and technology

What If We Just Stopped Using the Words FAKE NEWS?

Posted on by Marti Weston

screen-shot-2017-02-19-at-10-06-52-amTonight I looked at yet another post that yet another person labeled as Fake News (it wasn’t).  

What if we just stopped using the term fake news and gradually transitioned to other words? How much media literacy change would occur from this simple vocabulary adjustment?

  • Misinformation
  • Disinformation
  • Confirmed/Unconfirmed news
  • Authoritative news
  • Substantiated news
  • Verified or validated/unvalidated news
  • Corroborated news
  • Proven/Unproven news
  • Authenticated news
  • Reliable
  • Unambiguous news

Just wondering…

Posted in 21st Century life, democracy and digital life, Facebook, fake news, fraudulent news, media messages, political advertisements, social media

Two Senators Make Up a Group & Buy a Facebook Ad

Posted on by Marti Weston

Even as social media companies explained in Congressional hearings how they are developing ways to identify fraudulent and spurious political advertisements, two United States Senators conducted an experiment, creating a group, developing an ad, paying Facebook $20 each, and targeting groups of people who they hoped would view it. The two senators, Mark Warner of Virginia and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota wondered whether they could get people to notice their advertisement, and lots did. The ad also included a disclaimer.

They explain what they did in the video below, which appeared on ABC.

 

In the comments section some individuals spent time bashing the two senators, noting they made up something that wasn’t true. What did not have much to do with their jobs as senators, some commenters wondered?

However, the two senators clearly aimed to make a point about the relative ease of creating and uploading fraudulent political content, and they demonstrated that the current steps that social media companies are taking to identify false political ads is still not enough.

Posted in 21st Century life, digital citizenship case study, fake news, hateful comments, media literacy, news literacy, offensive speech, parents and technology, social media

Poor News Literacy Skills Combined With Unproven News Can Hurt Real People

Posted on by Marti Weston
america-1238742_960_720
via Pixabay

For years to come there will be no better case study to illustrate the damage that unsubstantiated news, internet trolls, and social media can create than ‘Pizzagate’. The shameful, made-up information and the events that followed will comprise an authoritative discussion piece for parents, and it should enter every middle and high school media/news literacy curriculum.

In the April 20, 2017 Washington Post, Comet Pizza owner James Alefantis writes about how fake news concerning his restaurant went viral. His article What Happened When ‘PizzaGate’ Came to My Restaurant describes what happened when his business, neighbors, and customers suffered because of harassment, frightening phone calls, menacing comments to workers and their families, intimidation toward nearby businesses, and even death threats. Yet Alefantis also describes how his strong community — neighbors and other businesses — rallied in support.
Continue reading “Poor News Literacy Skills Combined With Unproven News Can Hurt Real People” →

Posted in 21st Century life, 21st Century teaching, choosing reliable resources, credibility, democracy and digital life, digital kids, digital life, evaluating news, fake news, parents and technology, raising digital kids, teaching digital kids

How Are You Helping Kids Learn About MediaLit & Fake News? Progress?

Posted on by Marti Weston
Screen Shot 2017-04-09 at 9.30.15 PM
Check out Google’s new fact check feature.

Teachers all over the country are sharing ideas about how to help their students identify news that is made-up, unsubstantiated, or just plain false. Now Google has added a feature that identifies false information that comes up on user searches. An April 7, 2017 article at the Pointer Journalism site describes Google’s new fact check in detail and explains how the company went about developing its new feature. You can also read the CNET article about Google.

I’ve been delighted by the articles, such as Five Ways Teachers Are Fighting Fake News, an NPR education article that describe how three teachers are incorporating media literacy activities into their curriculum.  Plenty of other similar reports have appeared in various media. I hope that, somewhere, there is an organization that is archiving as many teacher ideas as possible.                          Continue reading “How Are You Helping Kids Learn About MediaLit & Fake News? Progress?” →

Posted in 21st Century Learning, credibility, digital life, evaluating news, fake news, media literacy, media messages, parents and technology

Teach Students to Use Words Other Than Fake!

Posted on by Marti Weston

screen-shot-2017-02-19-at-10-06-52-amFake is a generic term. It means one thing to one person and another thing to someone else. Anyone can say that something is fake or made up.

More descriptive words make it more difficult to label information that is untrue, and easier to challenge. We — kids, adults, parents, and teachers — need all the help we can get in this 21st Century connected world when it comes to evaluating credibility

My ideas?

  • Confirmed news
  • Authoritative news
  • Substantiated news
  • Verified or validated news
  • Corroborated news
  • Proven news
  • Authenticated news
  • Reliable news
  • Credible news
  • Unambiguous news

Teaching our children and all citizens to check for credibility, evaluate, and celebrate substantiated news has become more urgent In today’s hyper-connected world. Read my more detailed post on this topic.

Posted in 21st Century Learning, 21st Century life, evaluating news, media literacy, news, parents and technology

Can We Stop Using the Word Fake to Describe Made Up News?

Posted on by Marti Weston

describing-real-newsFake is a generic term. We don’t use it much when we teach — in any subject — because it’s judgmental and doesn’t tell us much about whatever it’s supposed to be characterizing. Besides, anyone can say that something — anything — is fake or made up.

So let’s not use fake to describe the news.

I recently read The Fight Against Fake News Starts in the Classroom, an article that describes media literacy lessons developed by Project Look Smart (at Ithaca College) and the principles of evaluating, deconstructing, and applying unambiguous descriptions to the news. The literacy lessons aim to help students gain more understanding of the practice of media evaluation and inquiry rather than simply designating something as true or false. When I finished reading the article and look over the wonderful teaching units, I realized that every lesson can be completed without focusing much, or at all on the word fake.         Continue reading “Can We Stop Using the Word Fake to Describe Made Up News?” →

Posted in 21st Century parenting, 21st Century teaching, digital learning, fake news, media literacy, parents and technology

Video Visually Demonstrates Sharing Fake News vs. Checking It First

Posted on by Marti Weston

A media company in Sweden, MetroSverige, shared this excellent video visualization that depicts the differences between checking on the validity of a piece of news and just sharing it without pausing to consider whether it or not it is fake news.