What are your faculty and students telling you about fake information? What can they teach us?
Type of Presentation
Individual paper/presentation (20 minute presentation)
Target Audience
Higher Education
Location
Room 212
Abstract
George Orwell is once again a best-selling author, but how is "fake news" in today's digital environment really different from what we see in his narratives and how concerned should we be?
Many citizens today are as dismissive of such concerns as Aristophanes was in his flippant description of Socrates "circum-cogitating the sun". In a more serious vein, perhaps there was something to Aldous Huxley’s dire warning against misinformation producing a "…population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude." How pervasive and subtle is the problem of misinformation? Should our concerns end with politics, or are bogus "alternative facts" really less prevalent in the hard sciences?
Numerous academic fields have generated a colossal volume of information that can inform our understanding of what constitutes fake information - philosophy, linguistics, rhetoric, mathematics, history, and psychology, to name a few. Without becoming overwhelmed, what can we take from such fields to help students and faculty?
Beginning with an analysis of recent developments in information literacy instruction in the field of librarianship, this talk explores one librarian's approaches to evaluating the accuracy of facts in the hard sciences. Discussions with students, faculty and librarians conducted over a period of decades are then considered in the context of the arts, humanities and sciences. With attention to affective aspects of information seeking, this session will explore how we can integrate practical evaluation strategies and techniques into our information literacy instruction.
Presentation Description
Discussion about "fake news" in today's digital environment is all the rage, but not new; Aldous Huxley famously warned against misinformation generating a "…population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude." Beginning with an analysis of recent developments in information literacy instruction, this talk explores how we can integrate practical evaluation strategies and techniques into our information literacy instruction in the sciences, arts and humanities.
Keywords
fake information, fake news, misinformation, propaganda, attitudes, strategies, information-seeking, digital age
Publication Type and Release Option
Event
Recommended Citation
Cruickshank, John L., "What are your faculty and students telling you about fake information? What can they teach us?" (2017). Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy. 22.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gaintlit/2017/2017/22
What are your faculty and students telling you about fake information? What can they teach us?
Room 212
George Orwell is once again a best-selling author, but how is "fake news" in today's digital environment really different from what we see in his narratives and how concerned should we be?
Many citizens today are as dismissive of such concerns as Aristophanes was in his flippant description of Socrates "circum-cogitating the sun". In a more serious vein, perhaps there was something to Aldous Huxley’s dire warning against misinformation producing a "…population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude." How pervasive and subtle is the problem of misinformation? Should our concerns end with politics, or are bogus "alternative facts" really less prevalent in the hard sciences?
Numerous academic fields have generated a colossal volume of information that can inform our understanding of what constitutes fake information - philosophy, linguistics, rhetoric, mathematics, history, and psychology, to name a few. Without becoming overwhelmed, what can we take from such fields to help students and faculty?
Beginning with an analysis of recent developments in information literacy instruction in the field of librarianship, this talk explores one librarian's approaches to evaluating the accuracy of facts in the hard sciences. Discussions with students, faculty and librarians conducted over a period of decades are then considered in the context of the arts, humanities and sciences. With attention to affective aspects of information seeking, this session will explore how we can integrate practical evaluation strategies and techniques into our information literacy instruction.
