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The Honest Truth about Fake News … and How Not to Fall for It (with Lesson Plan)

The Honest Truth about Fake News … and How Not to Fall for It (with Lesson Plan)
Did you hear that Pope Francis endorsed Donald Trump for president? Or that Hillary Clinton sold weapons to ISIS? Crazy, right? And … 100 percent false. But if you were one of the millions of people drawn to a bogus headline in your Facebook feed — or other social media platform of choice — and found yourself reading an article on what seemed like a legitimate news site (something like, say, The Political Insider, which “reported” the Clinton-ISIS story), then why wouldn’t you believe it? I mean, people you supposedly trust shared it with you and it ranked high in the Google search. Welcome to the world of “fake news.” Digital deception It comes as little surprise that the web is chock full of commercial click-bait hoaxes: get-rich-quick schemes, free Caribbean cruises, erectile dysfunction treatments … you name it. But as it turns out, the internet is also teeming with bogus information sites that masquerade as real news. Fake news, real profit, serious consequences Fake news is nothing new Related:  Fake NewsHow to Think Critically. Fake News

Lesson Plan: How to Spot Fake News | Channel One News The problem of fake news came to a dizzying head in 2016 when a man fired a shot in a family pizzeria as he “self-investigated” a false report of a child abuse ring led by top democrats. A BuzzFeed report confirmed that fake news stories, such as the one that claimed Hillary Clinton sold arms to ISIS, were actually viewed more times than articles from established and legitimate news sources. Did fake news have an impact on the election? How do we address the problem from here? This lesson plan features a Channel One News report on the problem. Then, students analyze the problem and consider steps media outlets and individuals need to take to prevent the viral spread of propaganda. Opening Activity Warm up: Ask students: How do you get your news? Words in the News: Review this word prior to viewing the video. propaganda (noun): Information that is often exaggerated or false and spread for the purpose of benefiting or promoting a specific individual or cause. Discuss Take a Survey Write

How to outsmart fake news in your Facebook feed It doesn't have to be this way. Fake news is actually really easy to spot -- if you know how. Consider this your New Media Literacy Guide. 1. Does the story come from a strange URL? Zimdars says sites with strange suffixes like ".co" or ".su," or that are hosted by third party platforms like WordPress should raise a red flag. 2. Mantzarlis says one of the biggest reasons bogus news spreads on Facebook is because people get sucked in by a headline and don't bother to click through. Just this week, several dubious organizations circulated a story about Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi. However, the articles themselves didn't contain that quote nor evidence that Pepsi's stock saw a significant drop (it didn't). 3. Sometimes legitimate news stories can be twisted and resurrected years after the fact to create a false conflation of events. A blog called Viral Liberty recently reported that Ford had moved production of some of their trucks from Mexico to Ohio because of Donald Trump's election win. 4. 5.

10 Good Tips To Spot Fake News April 15, 2017 A few days ago we shared with you a new Google feature that allows you to easily fact check online content. Today, we are sharing with you 10 good tips that will enable you to critically assess the veracity and credibility of online content (e.g. news stories). These are guidelines Facebook Help Centre provided for it users to help them spot fake news. However, these tips can also apply to any other type of content. Students can use them to evaluate digital content and enhance their critical reading comprehension.

factitious Veles, Macedonia one center producing fake news for $ ( 2 clicks) In the weeks following the 2016 presidential election, pundits, politicians and tech titans all sought to figure out whether fake news had affected the outcome. Hillary Clinton publicly castigated the "guys over in Macedonia who are running these fake news sites," and suggested they may have been working with Russia. The New Yorker reported that President Obama spent a day after Trump's victory talking "almost obsessively" with advisers about the stories coming out of Veles. 4 SITES TO FIGHT FAKE NEWS It’s important to discuss media literacy and help your students learn to separate fact from fiction so they can be informed, empowered citizens. Lisa Nielsen and Common Sense Education suggest these four websites to get you started: Opensecrets.org is all about following the money. The site, run by a nonpartisan and independent nonprofit called the Center for Responsive Politics, points out the connections between political contributions, lobbying data, and government policy. Poynter.org focuses on journalism, fairness, and transparency and publishes a weekly newsletter on fact-checking and accountability. Factcheck.org is a nonpartisan, nonprofit consumer advocacy site for voters that aims to reduce the deception and confusion in US politics by monitoring the factual accuracy of major political players’ statements. Snopes.com is the most well-known site for debunking the latest rumors, urban legends, myths, and misinformation. For More surveys, Visit www.techlearning.com/april17

Skills and Strategies | Fake News vs. Real News: Determining the Reliability of Sources - The New York Times Video and a related lesson plan from TEDEd. Update: Please also see our new, 2017 lesson, Evaluating Sources in a ‘Post-Truth’ World: Ideas for Teaching and Learning About Fake News _________ How do you know if something you read is true? Why should you care? We pose these questions this week in honor of News Engagement Day on Oct. 6, and try to answer them with resources from The Times as well as from Edutopia, the Center for News Literacy, TEDEd and the NewseumEd. Although we doubt we need to convince teachers that this skill is important, we like the way Peter Adams from the News Literacy Project frames it in a post for Edutopia. As he points out, every teacher is familiar with “digital natives” and the way they seem to have been born with the ability to use technology. Below, a roundup of tools, questions, activities and case studies we hope can help reduce this digital naïveté. Getting Started: What is News Literacy and Why Do You Need It? Video and a related lesson plan from TEDEd. 2.

Ken Paxton makes unfounded claim that Barack Obama used DACA to 'unilaterally confer' citizenship | PolitiFact Texas The lead lawyer for Texas state government hailed President Donald Trump’s rescission of predecessor Barack Obama’s move affording young unauthorized immigrants, sometimes called "Dreamers," renewable shields from deportation. Moreover, Attorney General Ken Paxton charged in a Sept. 5, 2017, press release, Obama "used that lawful-presence dispensation to unilaterally confer U.S. citizenship." A reader asked us to check on that. In his release, Paxton said the program that Trump gave Congress six months to restore granted lawful presence and work permits to nearly a million "unlawfully present aliens." That's close to solid. Yet citizenship wasn’t a declared offering via DACA. Iowa senator touts figures So, what citizenship provision was Paxton talking about? A web search led us to a Sept. 1, 2017, press release from Sen. As of Aug. 21, 2017, Grassley’s release said, 45,447 DACA recipients had been approved for "advance parole" with 3,993 applicants getting applications denied. Our ruling

Teaching Strategies to Help Students Spot Fake News Can your students spot fake news when they see it? Now that anyone with an Internet connection can publish whatever they want to online, it’s growing increasingly harder to spot what is real and what is fake. As young children start to get their information from social media news feeds (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat) it’s even more essential that they are able to decode what they read. Even as the world is beginning to crack down on inaccurate information, there is always a chance that a student will read something that is incorrect. Luckily, we can prepare students on what to look for by using teaching strategies like asking themselves a few questions to help them determine what is accurate and what is not. A few basic questions your students can consider when they encounter a piece of news is to ask if the information is accurate, relevant, reliable, timely, valid, and complete. Teaching Strategies to Detect Accuracy Relevancy Reliability Timeliness Validity Completeness

Ultimate Guide to Fake News: 27 of the Worst Fake News Sources If you spent any manner of time on the Internet in 2016, you probably noticed the term “fake news” being thrown around. It seems that the events of 2016 helped fuel an epidemic of the writing, posting, and sharing of articles posing as factual news releases. In reality, they were nothing more than clickbait attempts at generating revenue through the spreading of nearly unbelievable stories that captivated the emotions of many. It’s never fun when you read something awe-inspiring online and then find out later that you were tricked into believing something entirely untrue. So how do you combat this? Let’s start with the basics: what is Fake News? Fake news is a deliberately untrue published article that uses ideas and misconceptions that people want to hear or will share. The main thing to remember is that fake news is meant to trick the person reading it. Fake news is not the same as an honest mistake in the research and writing process, nor is it meant as social commentary. 1. 2. 3. 4.

Prolific fake news writer Paul Horner dead at 38 Professional hoaxster Paul Horner, who made a name for himself as a satirist and fake news impresario years before it became a focus of the 2016 presidential campaign, has died. The Arizona Republic reported on Sept. 26, 2017, that Horner, 38, died in Laveen, Ariz., on Sept. 18. The Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner confirmed to PolitiFact that the agency was investigating Horner’s death, but that final reports can take 3 to 6 months to complete. Horner ran a string of websites that often looked deceptively like mainstream news organizations. Formerly a writer at fake news site NationalReport.net, Horner is credited with authoring stories ranging from Bill Murray running for president to President Barack Obama opening a Muslim museum to Banksy getting arrested. We mentioned Horner specifically when we named Fake News our 2016 Lie of the Year. His stories also used the name Paul Horner as a source, or made some reference to an individual with that name.

How To Spot Fake News Critical thinking is a key skill in media and information literacy, and the mission of libraries is to educate and advocate its importance. Discussions about fake news has led to a new focus on media literacy more broadly, and the role of libraries and other education institutions in providing this. When Oxford Dictionaries announced post-truth was Word of the Year 2016, we as librarians realise action is needed to educate and advocate for critical thinking – a crucial skill when navigating the information society. IFLA has made this infographic with eight simple steps (based on FactCheck.org’s 2016 article How to Spot Fake News) to discover the verifiability of a given news-piece in front of you. Download the infographic Translations If you would like to translate the infographic into your language, please contact us.

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