INCORPORATING FAKE NEWS EVALUATION INTO INFORMATION LITERACY INSTRUCTION

INCORPORATING FAKE NEWS EVALUATION INTO INFORMATION LITERACY INSTRUCTION By Kristin Echtenkamp and Lynn Klundt

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Early Examples of Fake News – Revolutionary War■ ■ John Adams along with his cousin Sam planted false and exaggerated stories meant to undermine royal authority (Parkinson). Ben Franklin created a fake version of a Boston paper in which he fabricated stories about Native American uprisings taking place on the frontier at King George’s urging (Parkinson). – Spanish-American War ■ Considered the first media war. William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, editors of competing newspapers, fabricated news about the happenings in Cuba to sell newspapers (Alvarez, p. 24). http: //www. nybooks. com/daily/2017/02/13/the-true-history-of-fake-news/

What Drives the Creation of Fake News? – Financial Gain ■ – Clickbait – “A report by the Columbia Journalism Review highlighted the case of online magazine Slant, which pays writers $100 per month, plus $5 for every 500 clicks on their stories” (Frampton, para 6) – “The Washington Post reported that some creators of fake news sites can make upwards of $10, 000 per month through Google. Ad. Sense, a program that converts visitors into dollars based on ads” (Alvarez, p. 25). Ideological – Some fake news providers seek to advance political or religious stances on a particular topic or points of view (Gentzkow, M. p. 217). http: //www. bbc. com/news/uk-wales-34213693

Why is Fake News a Problem? – Stanford History Education Group http: //libguides. lmu. edu/c. php? g=595781&p=412189 9 ■ “Overall, young people’s ability to reason about the information on the Internet can be summed up in one word: bleak” (Stanford History Education Group, p. 4). ■ “Ordinary people once relied on publishers, editors, and subject matter experts to vet the information they consumed. But on the unregulated Internet, all bets are off. ”(Stanford History Education Group, p. 4). ■ “The internet is “both the world’s best factchecker and the world’s best bias confirmer” (Stanford History Education Group, p. 4 -5) ■ “’Our digital natives’ may be able to flit between Facebook and Twitter while simultaneously uploading a selfie to Instagram while texting a friend. But when it comes to evaluating information that flows through social media channels, they are easily duped. ” (Stanford History Education Group, p. 45).

Why is Fake News a Problem? – Statistics (Pew Report) ■ 23% of Americans say they have shared a made-up news story (Barthel, Mitchell and Holcomb). ■ 39% are very confident and 45% are somewhat confident in their ability to identify fake news (Barthel, Mitchell and Holcomb). ■ Only 11% of those surveyed were not confused by current events news stories (Barthel, Mitchell and Holcomb). ■ 62% of adults report getting their news on social media (Alverez, 25). ■ SAILS Test results http: //www. programminglibrarian. org /articles/fake-news-library-round

https: //www. statista. com/chart/6795/fake-news-is-a-real-problem/

Librarians and fake news ■ Librarians are trained in combating fake news – “Librarians are natural allies for educators in helping students become critical news consumers” (Wineburg, 2017). ■ Already covering evaluation in instruction ■ Provide information in the library that students can trust for academic research ■ Provide information on the dangers of misinformation in academia https: //americanlibrariesmagazine. org/2016/12/27/fighting-fake-news/

APPLICATIONS IN THE CLASSROOM

Stanford History Education Group Report https: //sheg. stanford. edu/upload/V 3 Lesson. Plans/Exe cutive%20 Summary%2011. 21. 16. pdf

PBS http: //www. pbs. org/newshour/extra/lessons_plans/lesson-planhow-to-teach-your-students-about-fake-news/

New York Times https: //learning. blogs. nytimes. com/2015/10/02/skillsand-strategies-fake-news-vs-real-news-determiningthe-reliability-of-sources/

Anti-Defamation League https: //www. adl. org/sites/default/files/documents/assets/pdf/education-outreach/fakenews-and-what-we-can-do-about-it. pdf

Newseum https: //newseumed. org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Unit-Believe-It-or-Not. pdf

Coursera https: //www. coursera. org/learn/news-literacy

News Literacy Project Checklist http: //www. thenewsliteracyproject. org/sites/default/files/GOTen. Questions. For. Fake. News_0. pdf

Proquest Checklist http: //blogs. proquest. com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Fake. News 1. pdf

Buzzfeed https: //www. buzzfeed. com/craigsilverman/fake-newscheckllist

Fact. Check. org http: //www. factcheck. org/2016/11/how-to-spot-fake-news/

IFLA https: //www. ifla. org/files/assets/hq/topics/infosociety/images/how_to_spot_fake_news. pdf

How we incorporated fake news into evaluation ■ Updating lesson plan – Fit into old evaluation activities – Used real-world examples to highlight misinformation found on the Internet and in news sources ■ Activities ■ Power. Point Presentation http: //www. factcheck. org/2016/11/how-to-spot-fake-news/

Types of Fake News "Pope Francis shocks world, endorses Donald Trump for president" The story was originally published by a site called WTOE 5 News before being copied by a popular fake news publisher Ending the Fed. By November 8, the story had picked up 960, 000 Facebook engagements, according to Buzzfeed. https: //www. cnbc. com/2016/12/30/read-all-about-it-the-biggest-fakenews-stories-of-2016. html? __source=Facebook

http: //www. snopes. com/1998 -trump-people-quote/

Bias https: //www. theblaze. com/news/2017/02/08/outrage-ensues-after -gop-silences-elizabeth-warren-for-breaking-senate-rules/ http: //www. slate. com/articles/news_and_politics/20 17/02/why_mitch_mcconnell_muzzled_elizabeth_warren_a nd_coretta_scott_king. html

https: //twitter. com/vlotero/status/808696317174288

Satire http: //www. theonion. com/graphic/proposed-immigration-law-calls-for-usto-shut-down-34254

Hands-on Social Media Evaluation https: //twitter. com/moveon/status/66677289384667545 6

Previous Evaluation Activities CRAAP Test http: //ucsd. libguides. com/preuss/webeval MLK Websites https: //www. martinlutherking. org/

What worked/What didn’t ■ Student reaction ■ Faculty/Administration Reaction – Getting faculty buy-in ■ Some activities work better than others http: //yoursmallbusinessgrowth. com/3 -elements-thatmakes-outsourcing-work/

https: //sheg. stanford. edu/upload/V 3 Lesson. Plans/Executive%20 Summary%2011. 21. 16. pdf

https: //sheg. stanford. edu/upload/V 3 Lesson. Plans/Executive%20 Summary%2011. 21. 16. pdf

Resources for students ■ Checklists ■ Posters http: //www. alastore. ala. org/detail. aspx? ID=12127

Fake News Books https: //www. amazon. com/dp/B 0 0 OFID 7 TE/ref=dp-kindleredirect? _encoding=UTF 8&btkr =1 https: //www. amazon. com/dp/B 01 JYX 44 LE/ref=dp-kindleredirect? _encoding=UTF 8&btkr=1 https: //www. amazon. com/St ewart-Colbert-Effect-Essays -Impacts/dp/0786458860

NSU Lib. Guide on Fake News http: //research. northern. edu/c. php? g=623885&p=4347122

Other Lib. Guides – Pace University – Cornell University – Loyola Marymount http: //guides. library. cornell. edu/c. php? g=620317&p=4319651

ALA Links http: //www. ala. org/news/state-americas-libraries-report 2017/resources

Facebook and Fake News http: //money. cnn. com/2016/12/15/media/facebook-fake-news-warninglabels/index. html

Google and Fake News ■ Ban ads that peddle fake news (Wingfield, Isaac and Benner). ■ Add fact checking to search engine results https: //www. engadget. com/2017/04/07/google-

Future Plans ■ Continuously update examples ■ “Fake News” fad but we’ll continue to talk about evaluation ■ Other social media platforms

Reverse Image Searches ■ Tin. Eye ■ Google Images

Fake News Cycle https: //www. nytimes. com/2016/11/20/business/m edia/how-fake-news-spreads. html

Questions? Suggestions? https: //www. newyorker. com/cartoon/a 20602

Works Cited