1. FAKE NEWS:
TEACHING STUDENTS HOW
TO EVALUATE INFORMATION
INSPIRED BY HEATHER LISTER AND SUSAN BROOKS-YOUNG’S
PRESENTATIONS AT THE NCCE 2018 CONFERENCE
PRESENTER: PETER G. MOHN
MARCH 9, 2018
2. FAKE NEWS SPREADS FARTHER, FASTER &
DEEPER
• Published in Science – study by MIT Researchers
• Falsehoods & Truths from 2006 – 2017
• Fact checking organizations had to agreement 95-98% of the time
• Truth spread up to 1,000 times; top 1% of falsehoods 1,000 –
100,000
• Politics represented 45,000 of the 126,000 cascades
• 1 account started 4,700 false rumors
• False rumors start with young, unverified accounts with a small
following
• Falsehoods contain more novelty than truth
• Bots accelerate true & false news at the same rate; designed to
increase anarchy in online social systems
• Early studies have shown labeling news as false might increase its
Guarino, Ben. Fake news spreads ‘farther, faster, deeper’ than truth, new study finds. Washington Post picked up by The Seattle
Times, March 8, 2018.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/science/fake-news-spreads-farther-faster-deeper-than-truth-new-study-finds/.
3. FAKE NEWS? THAT’S A VERY OLD STORY
An 1762 painting of Benjamin Franklin.
(Associated Press)
Opinion piece by Robert G. Parkinson in The Washington
Post, November 25, 2016
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fake-news-
thats-a-very-old-story/2016/11/25/c8b1f3d4-b330-
11e6-8616-
52b15787add0_story.html?utm_term=.e2b6d098f0ae
4. FAKE NEWS = LIES OR MISTRUTHS
• We should probably stop using the phrase “fake news” and tell
students fake news are lies:
• Out right lies (falsehoods)
• Half-Truths
• Misleading articles meant to muddy the waters or to create outrage
5. STANFORD STUDY RESULTS
• Only 25% of high school and college students could judge the
credibility of information online
• https://ed.stanford.edu/news/stanford-researchers-find-
students-have-trouble-judging-credibility-information-online
6. PETTING ZOO HERO, PART 2
• Nathan for You released a video showing a pig rescuing a goat
• This is what happened once this video was posted online
• http://www.cc.com/video-clips/tgvo9h/nathan-for-you-
petting-zoo-hero-pt--2
7. PETTING ZOO HERO, PART 1
• However, the Nathan for You video was a complete hoax
• It was an ad the was made as advertisement for a Petting Zoo
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2My_HOP-bw
8. IN FAKE FACT ERA, SCHOOLS TEACH THE
ABC’S OF NEWS LITERACY
Getty Image
Article by Issie Lapowsky in Wired.com. June
7, 2017
https://www.wired.com/2017/06/fake-fact-
era-schools-teach-abcs-news-literacy/
9. IS THIS STORY SHARE-WORTHY? LESSON
FROM
NEWSEUM
Is This Story Share-Worthy? Flowchart
Lesson at https://newseumed.org/activity/is-this-story-share-
worthy-flowchart-mlbp/
Students use an infographic to gauge the value of a news story and
weigh what they should do with it.
GRADE LEVEL: Middle and high school
TIME: 30-60 minutes
MATERIALS: Is This Story Share-Worthy? flowchart, either printed on
large paper or available to view on a screen(s) (download); Is This
Story Share-Worthy? worksheet, one per group (download); news
stories for students to evaluate (at least one per group); internet
access
PREPARE
Review the Is This Story Share-Worthy? flowchart, including the
supporting information for each question (located on the right hand
side).
Select a variety of news stories for students to evaluate using the
flowchart. Ideally, the stories should include a mix of fake news,
poor quality news, opinion journalism, biased news and high quality
Newseum ED Flowchart
10. WEBSITE EVALUATION TOOLS
UNDER EXPLORING INFORMATION
• California State University's CRAAP Web Site Evaluation Tool
• Kathy Schrock's Guide to The 5Ws of Web Site Evaluation
• Kathy Schrock's Guide ABCs of Web Site Evaluation
• ICYouSee: T is for Thinking
• University of California at Berleley's Evaluating Resources
• RADCAB - Your Vehicle for Information Evaluation
• Acadia University's Credible Sources Count!
• Warren Township School District's Web Site Evaluation Links & Hoaxes
11. CHANNEL ONE’S BLOG LESSON: HOW TO
SPOT FAKE NEWS
• https://www.channelone.com/blog_post/lesson-plan-how-to-
spot-fake-news/
12. 10 WAYS TO SPOT A FAKE NEWS ARTICLE
(EASYBIB BLOG POST)
• Is the article missing citations, references and links?
• Is the author’s name missing?
• If the author’s name is listed, are they a trustworthy individual?
• What can you find in the “About Us” section of the website?
• Are there spelling or grammatical errors found in the text?
• Are there any direct quotes that are incorrectly used or taken out of
context?
• Can you find a similar article on the Internet?
• Does the article only showcase one side of an argument?
• Does the headline not match the content of the article?
• Is the story completely outrageous?
13. CHECKOLOGY: TEN QUESTIONS FOR FAKE
NEWS DETECTION CHECK LIST
• http://www.thenewsliteracyproject.org/sites/default/files/GO-
TenQuestionsForFakeNewsFINAL.pdf
14. EVALUATING WEB AUTHORS
• The Internet is full of web sites that contain biased points of
views
• Use these two web sites to discuss author bias
• Junk Science.
• SourceWatch: Junk Science.
15. FAKE NEWS TEACHING RESOURCES
• William Patterson University’s David & Lorraine Cheng Library
• http://guides.wpunj.edu/c.php?g=615053&p=4276858
16. EVALUATING NUMBERS AND WORDS
• Evaluating Numbers
• Spurious Correlations
• Misleading Graphs: Real Life Examples
• Evaluating Words
• The New Yorker's article, How Headlines Change the Way We Think
• Fight Fake News
• YouTube video on How to Choose Your News
• Newseum to view front pages of daily newspapers
• GPHS LMC’s Online Resources and click on Newspapers
17. FACT CHECKING WEBSITES
• Fact Check
• Politifact
• Snopes
• Fact Checker
• AllSides: Balanced News
• ProPublica
• OpenSecrets (data on Campaign Finance)
• The Sunlight Foundation
• The Washington Post Fact Checker
• Truth or Fiction
• Urban Legends
18. FACT CHECKING SOURCES USING
CONSERVATIVE AND LIBERAL SOURCES
• Media Matters (liberal group following conservative news)
• News Busters (conservative group following liberal news)
19. RESOURCES
• Brooks-Young, Susan. Recognizing Lies: Literacy in the Post-
Truth Era. NCCE 2018. http://www.bagtheweb.com/b/92LfKV .
• Lester, Heather. Fake News – Hack Research. Slide show
presented at NCCE 2018.
https://raindrop.io/collection/2186989#0 .
• Mohn, Peter. Mr. Mohn’s Literacy Corner. Glacier Peak High
School Library Media Center.
https://www.sno.wednet.edu/Page/2409 .
