Slides for Day 3 in EWRT 2, Spr 18

1. EWRT 2
Day 3
Where does fake news come from?
Who is writing it? Why?

2. Agenda
 Checking In
 Participation
 Article Case Summaries
 Group Discussion of Fake News
Articles
 J1 Discussion
 Fact-checking
 P1 Assignment
 HW for Wednesday

3. Checking in
 Office Hours canceled today.
 Have the book?
 NYT subscription to “Evening Briefing”?
 Practice question for Wednesday’s “Evening Briefing” quiz:
 In the state of Missouri, the House of Representatives has released a
troubling investigation of Eric Greitens. What governmental position
does Greitens hold? And what does the report claim that Greitens did?
(No need to be too specific.)
 Did Amanda go over the Integrated Project with you? By next week,
you and I need to have conversation about a topic for your project.
 Each have a different topic, so you’ll need to claim yours.
 Your topic should be a belief or behavior that could be exposed to
critical thinking. You should investigate a false, controversial, or
unusual belief that people hold. Examples:
--the earth is flat (false belief).
--GMO food is dangerous or unhealthy (controversial belief).
--aliens have visited earth (unusual belief).
Whether or not you agree with this belief is irrelevant. The point of this
project is not to "debunk" this belief, but just to measure its incidence
(and/or its relation to other variables).

4. What discussion looks like today:
 I will give up to 4 discussion points for talking in class today.
 3 points for talking individually in our full group discussion. That means saying
3 things out loud. This could mean asking a question or answering a question.
 Talking in small groups does not count—it has to be in full-class discussion.
 I will go out of my way to make sure that new voices get to speak.
 1 point for saying something in the small group activity.
 At the end of class, you should turn in a sheet with a brief list of the three
individual things you said in class plus the one thing you said in small group
discussion.

5. Article: “Case Summary” in Groups
 Case summary should include:
 a brief summary of the article.
 what is the topic or event that is being discussed?
 INTENTION/MOTIVATION: Why do people
create/write or share fake news? What
reasons/motivations do you see in our article?
 INFRASTRUCTURE: How does it become publicized
(go viral)? What processes or resources do these
people take advantage of?
 IMPEDIMENTS: What processes/resources stand in
the way of fake news spreading? How effective are
they?
 FIGHTING BACK: How could a person have resisted
this? Steps that a reader could have taken.
 CONSEQUENCES: What are the consequences of the
fake news in your article?

6. “How Fake News Goes Viral: A Case Study”
 SUMMARY
 INTENTION/MOTIVATION: Why do
people create/write or share fake
news? What reasons/motivations do
you see in our article?
 INFRASTRUCTURE: How does it
become publicized (go viral)? What
processes or resources do these
people take advantage of?
 IMPEDIMENTS: What
processes/resources stand in the way
of fake news spreading? How
effective are they?
 FIGHTING BACK: How could a person
have resisted this? Steps that a
reader could have taken.
 CONSEQUENCES: What are the
consequences of the fake news in
your article?

7. Dissecting the #PizzaGate Conspiracy Theories
 SUMMARY
 INTENTION/MOTIVATION: Why do
people create/write or share fake
news? What reasons/motivations do
you see in our article?
 INFRASTRUCTURE: How does it
become publicized (go viral)? What
processes or resources do these
people take advantage of?
 IMPEDIMENTS: What
processes/resources stand in the way
of fake news spreading? How
effective are they?
 FIGHTING BACK: How could a person
have resisted this? Steps that a
reader could have taken.
 CONSEQUENCES: What are the
consequences of the fake news in
your article?

8. From Headline to Photograph:
A Fake News Masterpiece
 SUMMARY
 INTENTION/MOTIVATION: Why do people
create/write or share fake news? What
reasons/motivations do you see in our article?
 INFRASTRUCTURE: How does it become
publicized (go viral)? What processes or
resources do these people take advantage of?
 IMPEDIMENTS: What processes/resources stand
in the way of fake news spreading? How
effective are they?
 FIGHTING BACK: How could a person have
resisted this? Steps that a reader could have
taken.
 CONSEQUENCES: What are the consequences of
the fake news in your article?

9. https://www.wired.com/video/2017/02/inside-the-fake-
news-factory-of-macedonia/
Inside the Macedonian
Fake-News Complex
SUMMARY
INTENTION/MOTIVATION: Why do
people create/write or share
fake news? What
reasons/motivations do you see
in our article?
INFRASTRUCTURE: How does it
become publicized (go viral)?
What processes or resources do
these people take advantage of?
IMPEDIMENTS: What
processes/resources stand in the
way of fake news spreading? How
effective are they?
FIGHTING BACK: How could a
person have resisted this? Steps
that a reader could have taken.
CONSEQUENCES: What are the
consequences of the fake news in
your article?

10. Intention / Motivation
 Why do people create/write fake news? What are the various
motivations/reasons?
 Money: how?
 Political beliefs: what kinds?
 Find secret meaning? Feel smart? (The National Treasure motive.)
 Pleasure?
 Accident?
 Attention?
 How much can we blame Boris? (Brianna)
 Would you take a job writing fake news?
(Marvin)

11. Distribution
 How does it become publicized?
 What processes and resources do these people take advantage of?
 websites:
 ideological blogs:
 online communities:
 fake websites:
 IMAGES (out of context).
 the President himself?
 Why do false stories
spread more?

12. Distribution
 How does it become publicized?
 What processes and resources do these people take advantage of?
 websites: Twitter, Facebook (real pages and fake profiles), YouTube
 ideological blogs: Free Republic, Breitbart, etc.
 online communities: Reddit, 4chan (with some political purpose)
 fake websites: ChristianTimesNewspaper, HealthWhatever.
 IMAGES (out of context).
 the President himself?
 Why do false stories
spread more?

13. Impediments
 What processes/resources stand in the way of the spread of fake news? Or
push back against it?
 actual journalists: television and newspaper. (Why does this not succeed?)
 Google and FB new policies.
 Snopes, Politifact, FactCheck.org
 Which of these might be able to stop the rapid spread?
 Why or why not?
 Is there any way to hold people accountable? (Angelica)
 Could it be a crime to spread fake news? (Jasmin)
 Is the First Amendment the problem? (Rei)

14. Consequences and What Is to Be Done
 Consequences?
 What effects does this fake news
have?
 Can it be “undone”?
 How could YOU have told that any
of the stories that were described
in these articles were fake?
 What are some steps you could
have taken?
 Are there collective things that
could be done?

15. Journal 1: News Ecosystem
 Share:
 What are your news sources?
 What biases might this introduce?
 What overlap, if any, do we see with the list of fake news enablers?
 How can we deal with that?
 Dean, Eric, Lisa: Have you ever been tricked by fake news?

16. Fact-Checking
 Six groups, three fact-checking
sites.
 You can use your devices!
 Snopes.com
Politifact.com
FactCheck.org
 Snopes, Politifact, FactCheck.org
 each group should choose a story
(try to pick something interesting).
 can’t choose the same one.
 read about it.
 explain it to the class: what is the
claim? Is it true? Why or why not?
And how did the fact checkers
determine this?

17. Paper 1 Assignment
Due Friday, April 27, by 9 AM on Canvas.

18. HW for Wednesday
 There’s reading! Where do you find
it?
 There’s a discussion post due by
Tuesday at 6 PM. Where do you
post it?
 You should study for the New York
Times quiz.
Participation slip for today:
1. Your name and the date.
2. One point for each thing you said
individually in discussion (limit:
3).
3. One point for saying something
in the small group discussion.
4. Total (up to 4).