“500 Foot Librarian Donates Eyes to Science!”: Media Literacy in the Age of Fake News
Type of Presentation
Workshop (1 hour and 15 minutes)
Target Audience
K-12
Location
Room 210
Proposal
Can dandelions cure cancer? Is Bill Murray running for President? Was a pizza place in New Jersey running a human trafficking ring? In this age of digital and social media, it may be difficult for students to differentiate between authoritative information and fake news.
After a brief presentation on the history of fake news and its prevalence in social media, workshop participants (acting as a typical freshman experience class) will watch a video about the PizzaGate incident and discuss the phenomenon of fake news and why people create it. Next the class will develop a fake news checklist. Then, using the checklist, we will look at a news story and decide whether it is real or fake news.
In the next activity, we will break the class into groups, give each group a fake news story, and ask them to evaluate the story’s legitimacy and which indicators point to the story being real or fake. Then a representative of each group will teach the rest of the class about their news story and highlight some of the qualities of a fake news story. To finish up the group activity, each group will recommend one source that provides real, high-quality news and explain what makes this source reliable and legitimate.
At the end of the workshop, we will come back together and discuss the real world consequences of fake news. Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of fake news, how to identify it when they see it, and with ideas about how to teach students to spot fake news and avoid it.
Learning Outcomes:
Participants will identify fake news by considering the source of information, gauging their emotional reaction, and reflecting on how they encountered the information (social media, email, website, etc.).
Participants will describe consequences of fake news by examining specific instances where fake news has influenced real-world events.
Short Description
Can dandelions cure cancer? Is Bill Murray running for President? In this age of digital and social media it may be difficult for students to differentiate between authoritative information and fake news. In this workshop participants will become familiar with the concept of fake news, develop a fake news checklist, and vet websites. This workshop includes a group activity, where participants will compare and contrast legitimate and fake news stories and discuss the consequences of fake news.
Keywords
fake news, media literacy, early college, high school, social media
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Recommended Citation
Smith, Ngaire I. and Cyre, Heather M., "“500 Foot Librarian Donates Eyes to Science!”: Media Literacy in the Age of Fake News" (2017). Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy. 17.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gaintlit/2017/2017/17
“500 Foot Librarian Donates Eyes to Science!”: Media Literacy in the Age of Fake News
Room 210
Can dandelions cure cancer? Is Bill Murray running for President? Was a pizza place in New Jersey running a human trafficking ring? In this age of digital and social media, it may be difficult for students to differentiate between authoritative information and fake news.
After a brief presentation on the history of fake news and its prevalence in social media, workshop participants (acting as a typical freshman experience class) will watch a video about the PizzaGate incident and discuss the phenomenon of fake news and why people create it. Next the class will develop a fake news checklist. Then, using the checklist, we will look at a news story and decide whether it is real or fake news.
In the next activity, we will break the class into groups, give each group a fake news story, and ask them to evaluate the story’s legitimacy and which indicators point to the story being real or fake. Then a representative of each group will teach the rest of the class about their news story and highlight some of the qualities of a fake news story. To finish up the group activity, each group will recommend one source that provides real, high-quality news and explain what makes this source reliable and legitimate.
At the end of the workshop, we will come back together and discuss the real world consequences of fake news. Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of fake news, how to identify it when they see it, and with ideas about how to teach students to spot fake news and avoid it.
Learning Outcomes:
Participants will identify fake news by considering the source of information, gauging their emotional reaction, and reflecting on how they encountered the information (social media, email, website, etc.).
Participants will describe consequences of fake news by examining specific instances where fake news has influenced real-world events.
