Critical thinking skills are needed to evaluate information in an age of disinformation and fake news. There are many approaches to addressing this issue, including legal reforms, funding models for platforms, fact-checking, improving algorithm transparency, media literacy education, and exploiting insights from cognitive psychology. Teaching critical thinking in schools is highlighted as an important approach, and information literacy is seen as key to developing critical thinking abilities and engaging as informed citizens. Various government bodies and organizations are taking steps to promote media literacy and critical thinking.

1. Critical thinking
in an age of
disinformation and fake news
Jane Secker and Stéphane Goldstein
RSA Durham - 29 October 2019

2. Just to remind us where we are...

3. ...and who we are
Dr Jane Secker,
Senior Lecturer at City, University
/ Chair of CILIP Information
Literacy Group
Stéphane Goldstein
Executive Director,
InformAll
/ Advocacy & Outreach Officer,
CILIP Information Literacy Group

4. Critical thinking: the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy suggests there are
14 philosophically oriented scholarly definitions and 3 dictionary definitions.
Let’s stick to a simple one: “disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-
minded and informed by evidence”. From dictionary.com
Disinformation: “The deliberate creation and sharing of false and/or
manipulated information that is intended to deceive and mislead audiences,
either for the purposes of causing harm, or for political, personal or financial
gain”. From the Government’s response to the interim parliamentary report
on ‘Disinformation and fake news’
Definitions

5. The premise

7. How do we fix this?
It’s complicated… no single solution, and these are possible approaches:
● Legal and regulatory
○ e.g. Disclosing the source and funding of sponsored campaign advertisements; obliging
social media platforms to act to protect users from disinformation
● New funding models for online platforms, with no reliance on advertising
● Fact-checking initiatives
● Accountability and traceability of sources of misinformation
○ Greater transparency of algorithms
● Technical fixes, notably through AI and algorithms
● Education, including information and media literacy
● Exploiting know-how of of cognitive psychology
○ ‘Inoculation’ against disinformation; fostering empathy

8. One important approach: teach critical thinking
“Our education system needs to respond
to the overwhelming and confusing
information world. Every school should
teach the critical thinking necessary to
navigate the internet skeptically.”
page 210

9. The policy responses
Over the past 2-3 years, growing concerns about the
threats that disinformation represents to democracy
and civil society have prompted public agencies to start
acting.
But responses are often slow and lag well behind
technological developments, and the behavioural
practices that these engender.
A small selection of examples of where things are
moving…
Image credit: Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images

10. House of Commons DCMS Select Committee
inquiry and report
Chapter on digital literacy: “Children, young adults,
and adults [...] need to be equipped in general with
sufficient digital literacy, to be able to understand
content on the Internet, and to work out what is
accurate or trustworthy, and what is not.”
Key recommendation from inquiry report: “Digital
literacy should be the fourth pillar of education,
alongside reading, writing and maths.”
Unfortunately, the government rejected this
recommendation.

11. Cairncross Review
Independent review commissioned by the government
to look at challenges facing high quality journalism.
“Adults, as well as children and young people, need
critical literacy skills to navigate the volume of
information online, evaluate it, and decide what it
means to them”
Recommends that “government should develop a
media literacy strategy, working with [different
stakeholders] to identify gaps in provision and
opportunities for more collaborative working”.

12. Online Harms White Paper
Published April 2019, consultation period until July,
currently awaiting Government response.
Chapter on empowering users: “…media and digital
literacy can equip users with the skills they need to
spot dangers online, critically appraise information
and take steps to keep themselves and others safe
online. It can also have wider benefits, including for
the functioning of democracy by giving users a better
understanding of online content and enabling them to
distinguish between facts and opinions online”.

13. White Paper envisages a national media literacy strategy, with the aims that
include:
● Ensuring that users can be more resilient in dealing with mis- and
disinformation, including in relation to democratic processes and
representation.
● Equipping people to recognise and deal with a range of deceptive and
malicious behaviours online, including catfishing, grooming and
extremism.
Librarians have been recognised as key partners in the development of the
strategy

14. European Commission
Report of high level expert group on fake news and
disinformation. Responses and actions include proposals on
media and information literacy:
“Media and information literacy has become an essential
competence as it is the starting point for developing critical
thinking and good personal practices for discourse online,
and consequently also in the offline world. It aims at
building a citizenship based on fundamental rights like
freedom of expression, and at enabling an active and
responsible participation in the online public sphere.”

15. Organisations with an interest
For instance:
● DCMS Counter Online Manipulation Security and
Online Harms Directorate – coordinating
government’s policy on combatting
disinformation.
● Ofcom – regulator with statutory responsibility
for evaluating media literacy in UK population.
● National Literacy Trust – resources on fake
news and critical literacy.
● NewsWise – promoting news literacy among
primary school students.
And many more…

16. A word about terminology
“There needs to be a way of
communicating the value of
developing critical abilities in our
learners to foster collaboration
between higher education
professionals and better support
students.”
Secker (2018)

17. The CILIP definition of
information literacy
“Information literacy is the
ability to think critically and
make balanced judgements about
any information we find and
use. It empowers us as citizens
to develop informed views and to
engage fully with society.”

18. How this fits into the curriculum (at school and HE level)
“Information literacy can enhance and
enrich a range of taught subjects in the
school curriculum, being embedded as
part of critical thinking skills and
knowledge development….
In Higher Education information
literacy contributes to academic
competencies, research methodologies
and an understand of plagiarism”

19. The role of librarians and information professionals
“Information literacy is
central for information
professionals as they
create, curate and enable
the use of diverse types of
information in an ethical
manner.”

20. Overlaps with RSA

21. Thank you and any questions?
jane.secker@city.ac.uk
@jsecker
sg@informall.org.uk
@stephgold7
https://infolit.org.uk/

22. References and further reading
Bartlett, J (2018). The People vs Tech: how the internet is killing democracy (and how we save it). Penguin: London
Cairncross Review (2019), A sustainable future for journalism,
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/779882/02191
9_DCMS_Cairncross_Review_.pdf
CILIP Definition of Information Literacy 2018, https://infolit.org.uk/ILdefinitionCILIP2018.pdf
European Commission (2018), Final report of the High Level Expert Group on Fake News and Online
Disinformation, https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/final-report-high-level-expert-group-fake-
news-and-online-disinformation
HM Government (2019), Online Harms White Paper,
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/793360/Online
_Harms_White_Paper.pdf
House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (2018), Disinformation and ‘fake news’: Interim
Report: Government Response to the Committee’s Fifth Report of Session 2017–19,
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmcumeds/1630/1630.pdf

23. Lim, G. (2019), Disinformation Annotated Bibliography, The Citizen Lab and Munk School of Global Affairs and
Public Policy, University of Toronto, https://citizenlab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Disinformation-
Bibliography.pdf
Noble, S. U. (2018). Algorithms of oppression: How search engines reinforce racism. NYU Press.
Robinson R., Alistair Coleman A. and Sardarizadeh S. (2019), A report of anti-disinformation initiatives, Oxford
Technology and Elections Commission (OxTEC), Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford,
https://oxtec.oii.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/115/2019/08/OxTEC-Anti-Disinformation-Initiatives-1.pdf
Secker, J. (2018), The trouble with terminology: rehabilitating and rethinking ‘Digital Literacy'. In: Reedy, K. and
Parker, J. (Eds.), Digital Literacy Unpacked. (pp. 3-16). London: Facet Publishing. ISBN 178330197X,
http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/20546/
Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy (2018), Critical Thinking, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/critical-thinking/