NEWS OUTLETS The News and Fake News How

NEWS OUTLETS The News and Fake News

How many news sources can you name? • TV channels? • TV shows? • Websites/blogs? • Magazines? • What else?

• Its name means “the peninsula” (the Arabian peninsula) • Founded in Qatar in 1996, first started as an Arabic news channel but has expanded worldwide • Owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network, which is partly funded by the House of Thani, the ruling family of Qatar. • Evidence of bias: • While Al Jazeera officials have stated that they are editorially independent from the government of Qatar, this assertion has been disputed • Some people think it has an anti-Western bias

• an online news and current events channel run by Al Jazeera Media Network, available on its app, Facebook, Twitter, etc • Launched in 2014 • They report the news, create documentaries

• An American online news source and blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, Andrew Breitbart, and Jonah Peretti • A news aggregator is a website that gathers news from different sources and other Web sites • They have won a Pulitzer Prize • Launches on May 9, 2005 as an overtly liberal alternative to news aggregators like the Drudge Report • Evidence of bias: • They are overtly liberal/left-leaning, but have been trying to skew more centrist lately

• Founded 2006 in NYC – an “internet media company” • CEO: Jonah Peretti (he also co-founded Huffington Post) • “The most shareable breaking news” • In 2011 they started to expand into serious journalism • Evidence of bias: • Peretti hosted a fundraiser for the Democratic Party but refused a $1. 3 million ad deal with the Republican Party (they say that Trump wants to severely limit the freedom of the press • They use “native advertising” where they mix advertising with content • In 2015 they deleted some posts that were critical of some of their advertisers like Hasbro and Dove Soap

What is “Native Advertising”? • Instead of using banners on their website, Buzzfeed uses promoted posts to make millions of dollars every year • While many media companies struggle to survive, Buzz. Feed is prospering by means of sponsored content. • Examples: • 11 Jokes Only “Call Of Duty” Fans Will Get – published by COD Advanced Warfare, published Oct 31, 2013 • 15 Bands That Probably Wouldn’t Exist Without Led Zeppelin – published by Spotify on Dec 13, 2013 • 9 Things That Have Changed In The Last 20 Years – published by Motorola on April 1, 2014

• Started as a Montreal-based magazine called “Vice” • Turned into Vice Media in 1994 by 3 guys including Shane • • • Smith, the current CEO Relocated to NYC in 2001, expanded into digital media and news, made documentaries on its website and Youtube channel Aimed at millennials – trying to be edgy and hip Many dismiss it as “info-tainment” Shane Smith is now one of Canada’s richest people Evidence of bias: • They also use Native Advertising • Owned partially now by Disney • Quite clearly left-leaning

Breitbart. com • a politically conservative American news and opinion website founded in 2007 by conservative commentator and entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart (1969– 2012) • Headquarters in L. A. • Evidence of bias: • They are very clearly pro-Trump and pro-Republican

• a politically conservative American news website. • Run by Matt Drudge with the help of Charles Hurt, the site consists mainly of links to stories from the United States and international mainstream media • Started in 1996 as a gossip column, headquarters in Hollywood • Andrew Breitbart was his assistant • Evidence of bias: • The Drudge Report has a history of fabricating or misrepresenting stories.

Info. Wars • Run by Alex Jones, a far-right conspiracy theorist • Has been deemed fake news • He thinks that the moon landing was fake, that the government played a part in 911, and that the Sandy Hook shooting was fake • Trump calls himself a fan

• The Cable News Network (CNN) is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner. • It was founded in 1980 by American media mogul Ted Turner • It was the first television channel to provide 24 -hour news coverage • Evidence of bias: • Studies have shown they tend to show the Republican candidates in a more negative light than the Democrats r: urne T d e out T b a t c w a Fun F ted the sho a he cre Planet” ain “Capt

• An American news television channel that is owned by the Fox Entertainment Group subsidiary of 21 st Century Fox. • The channel was created by Australian-American media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who hired former Republican Party media consultant and CNBC executive Roger Ailes as its founding CEO. • It launched on October 7, 1996, headquartered in NYC • Evidence of bias: • They have been called very pro-Republican

• British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster. • The world's oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees, founded in 1922 in London • Evidence of bias: • Accusations of a bias against the Conservative Party • BBC presenter Andrew Marr has said that "The BBC is not impartial or neutral. It has a liberal bias, not so much a party-political bias. It is better expressed as a cultural liberal bias. “ • Conversely, the BBC has been criticised by Guardian columnist, Owen Jones, who has said that "the truth is the BBC is stacked full of rightwingers. “ • The BBC has also been called a pro-monarchist institution

Ted Talk: How to choose your news • https: //ed. ted. com/lessons/how-to-choose-your-news- damon-brown, 4: 45

FAKE NEWS

• What is fake news? • Have you ever fallen for a fake news story? • How would you define satire? Clickbait?

Some helpful definitions • Fake News: Sources that intentionally fabricate information, disseminate deceptive content, or grossly distort actual news reports. • Has become a catch-all term for everything from hoaxes to conspiracy theories to “alternative facts” • Satire: Sources that use humor, irony, exaggeration, ridicule, and false information to comment on current events. • Rumor Mill: Sources that traffic in rumors, gossip, innuendo, and unverified claims.

• Junk Science: Sources that promote pseudoscience, metaphysics, naturalistic fallacies, and other scientifically dubious claims. • Clickbait: A strategically placed hyperlink designed to drive traffic to sources that provide generally credible content, but use exaggerated, misleading, or questionable headlines, social media descriptions, and/or images.

Post-Truth Politics • : a political culture in which debate is framed largely by appeals to emotion disconnected from the details of policy, and by the repeated assertion of talking points to which factual rebuttals are ignored. • In 2016, "post-truth" was chosen as the Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year, due to its prevalence in the context of that year's Brexit referendum and media coverage of the U. S. presidential election

Common Nowadays • Fake news is no longer a matter of the occasional hoax. There is growing evidence that fake news has the power to shape public opinion and even sway elections. • As more people get their news online, it is increasingly vital that students know how to verify sources and spot fake news or images, which often appear indistinguishable from a reliable source. • Fake news stories can be created in a “fake news factory”, while stories from traditional sources like the Times are called fake news because it goes against one’s agenda • The creation of fake news causes confusion, and causes you to doubt everything

• Competition for social media’s large supply of willing eyeballs is fierce, and a number of frequent offenders regularly fabricate salacious and attention -grabbing tales simply to drive traffic (and revenue) to their sites.

Examples of fake news • He never said this – but this image and quote went viral in 2016

More examples of fake news • In July 2016, a the web site WTOE 5 News reported that Pope Francis had broken with tradition and unequivocally endorsed Donald Trump for President of the United State • Not true

Times Trump Spread Fake News

False Images • Last month, a widely circulated image that appeared to capture a member of antifascist group Antifa beating a police officer during a “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va. , turned out to be fake • People shared the photo as evidence that “many sides” were to blame for the violence, as President Donald Trump had suggested. • It is actually a doctored version of a photo from a Greek protest in 2009

• After President Trump held a rally in Phoenix recently, his supporters shared an image of what was purportedly a massive crowd in the streets ahead of his speech, but the photo is actually an aerial shot from the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers parade.

Macedonian Fake News Factory • The Macedonian town of Veles had its locals launched at least 140 US politics websites. • These sites have Americansounding domain names such as World. Politicus. com, Trump. Vision 365. com, USConservative. Today. com, Donald. Trump. News. co, and USADaily. Politics. com. They almost all publish aggressively pro-Trump content aimed at conservatives and Trump supporters in the US. • For these young people it’s about money not politics • The economy there is weak and teenagers are not allowed to work so they have to find creative ways to make money • Those who run the sites learned that the best way to generate traffic is to get their politics stories to spread on Facebook — and the best way to generate shares on Facebook is to publish sensationalist and often false content that caters to Trump supporters.

• “Fake News, Real Consequences” Full Frontal with Samantha Bee https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Au. Gj. K 0 k. YBOc

How to Fight Fake News • Facebook has started rolling out a third party fact checking tool in the US and Germany that will label fake news as “disputed” • Google Chrome extensions include a “BS Detector”

SIGNS IT MIGHT BE FAKE NEWS

• ALL CAPS or obviously • Check the date. Social photoshopped pictures • Lots of pop-ups and banner ads • No links, quotes or references? • Verify an unlikely story by finding a reputable outlet reporting the same thing media often resurrects old stories • Read past the headlines, they often have little to do with the story • Reverse image search the pictures

3 Good Neutral Fact Checking Sites • Fact. Check. org • Snopes. com • Politifact. com

Class Activity • Get into small groups. Divide up these websites amongst yourselves, and then try to determine if they are credible, satire, clickbait, strongly biased, or fake news? - American. News. com Beforeitsnews. com Duffelblog Globalresearch. ca Redflagnews - Gomerblog - Weekly. World. News - World. News. Daily. Report - Real. News. Right. Now. com - World. Politics. Now. com

Homework: • Find a recent news story. (American stories are easiest because their politics and news sources are familiar to us and yet so polarized). • Now compare how two politically-different news sources cover the same story. Maybe you watch a clip about Hurricane Harvey on MSNBC, and then a clip about it from Fox News. Maybe you read an article about Trump’s transgender ban in the New York Times, and then one from Breitbart. com.