With an ever-increasing daily torrent of information raining on people from almost every perceivable angle, it is impossible to process it all and, more importantly, to “separate the wheat from the chaff.” It is vital for everyone to be able to verify the accuracy and authority of information found on the Web while being able to detect bad data and lies to achieve the final goal of making intelligent decisions. As 21st Century library and information professionals, it is essential that we know how to think in the Information Age and to be able to pass this skill on to our users. In this webinar: ~ discover what misinformation is and explore ways to combat it. ~ learn to recognize misleading news, statistics, graphs, infographics, and more. ~ understand basic fallacies and how to detect bias. ~ appreciate how fast information spreads on social media and gather tools to help you become a stronger digital citizen. ~ utilize the scientific method to become a critical thinker in the Information Age.

1. How to Think in the Information Age
Finding Facts in a Post-Truth World

2. .com/cmairn
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3. Agenda
• discover what misinformation is and explore ways to combat it.
• learn to recognize misleading news, statistics, graphs, infographics,
and more.
• understand basic fallacies and how to detect bias.
• appreciate how fast information spreads on social media and gather
tools to help you become a stronger digital citizen.
• utilize the scientific method to become a critical thinker in the
Information Age.

4. “The information of the people at large can alone
make them safe as they are the sole depository of
our political and religious freedom.”
Thomas Jefferson

7. Relating to or denoting circumstances in which
objective facts are less influential in shaping public
opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.

8. Alternative Facts
Source: Tampa Bay Times, January 23, 2017, https://goo.gl/mn15sy

9. Source: https://goo.gl/OjUUwC

10. Image source: https://goo.gl/tlyh6J

11. How to Spot a Liar, https://goo.gl/KkQamL
“A lie has no power whatsoever
by its mere utterance; its power
emerges when someone else
agrees to believe the lie.”
Pamela Meyer

12. Without good, unbiased information, no one has the
right tools to make up his or her own mind about
things that matter! Ask a Librarian!!

13. Source: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill

14. Source: https://goo.gl/aZs9ct

15. Learn to recognize misleading news,
statistics, graphs, infographics, etc.

16. Plausibility Check

17. In the 35 years since marijuana laws stopped
being enforced in California, the number of
marijuana smokers has doubled every year.
Source: Levitin, p4

18. Death Valley’s average annual
temperature is 77 degrees.

19. Correlation does not imply causation.
Source: https://goo.gl/uMjiyK
Find more at: www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations

20. Infographics
Source: Levitin, p.52

22. A fake news article posted by Beqa Latsabidze, a
Georgian computer science student.
Source: https://goo.gl/GLFvhm

23. Google and Facebook Take Aim at Fake News Sites
Source: https://goo.gl/R8IEwZ

24. 1.
3.
More about this later …
2.

25. Video: https://youtu.be/ttGUiwfTYvg
Nothing is real: How German scientists control person’s face

26. Source: https://goo.gl/e8p7ql

27. International Fact-Checking Network
fact-checkers’ code of principles
1. A COMMITMENT TO NONPARTISANSHIP AND FAIRNESS
2. A COMMITMENT TO TRANSPARENCY OF SOURCES
3. A COMMITMENT TO TRANSPARENCY OF FUNDING & ORGANIZATION
4. A COMMITMENT TO TRANSPARENCY OF METHODOLOGY
5. A COMMITMENT TO OPEN AND HONEST CORRECTIONS
Read more at: http://www.poynter.org/fact-checkers-code-of-principles/

29. Source: https://goo.gl/gCziII
Note to Breitbart: Earth Is Not Cooling, Climate Change Is Real and
Please Stop Using Our Video to Mislead Americans

30. B.S. Detector searches all links on a given webpage for references to unreliable sources,
checking against a manually compiled list of domains. It then provides visual warnings about
the presence of questionable links or the browsing of questionable websites:
http://bsdetector.tech/

31. http://www.opensources.co/

34. Reporting
fake news on
Facebook!
Assignment
idea!

36. List of fake news websites:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fake_news_websites
List of satirical news websites:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_satirical_news_websites

37. Source: https://goo.gl/7F3JXA

38. http://fiskkit.com/
Assignment
idea!

39. Understand basic fallacies and
how to detect bias.

41. Basic Fallacies
Source: owl.english.purdue.edu
• Slippery Slope - a conclusion based on the premise that if A happens, then eventually through a
series of small steps through B, C,..., X, Y, that Z will happen too.
• Hasty Generalization - a conclusion based on insufficient or biased evidence.
• Post hoc ergo propter hoc - a conclusion that assumes that if A occurred after B then B must have
caused A.
• Genetic Fallacy - conclusion is based on an argument that the origins of a person, idea, institute, or
theory determine its character, nature, or worth.
• Begging the Claim – the conclusion that the writer should prove is validated within the claim.
• Circular Argument - restates the argument rather than actually proving it.

42. Basic Fallacies
• Either/or - conclusion that oversimplifies the argument by reducing it to only two sides or choices.
• Ad hominem - an attack on the character of a person rather than his or her opinions or arguments.
• Ad populum - an emotional appeal that speaks to positive (such as patriotism, religion, democracy) or
negative (such as terrorism or fascism) concepts rather than the real issue at hand.
• Red Herring - a diversionary tactic that avoids the key issues, often by avoiding opposing arguments
rather than addressing them.
• Straw Man - oversimplifies an opponent's viewpoint and then attacks that hollow argument.
• Moral Equivalence - compares minor misdeeds with major atrocities.
Source: owl.english.purdue.edu

44. Questions to ask to help detect bias
• Who are the sources?
• Is there a lack of diversity?
• From whose point of view is the news reported?
• Are there double standards?
• Do stereotypes skew the coverage?
• What are the unchallenged assumptions?
• Is the language loaded?
• Is there a lack of context?
• Do the headlines and stories match?
Source: https://goo.gl/6wKdHa
News Literacy Toolkit: http://libguides.westga.edu/newsliteracy

45. Using the Scientific Method to become a
critical thinker in the Information Age.

47. Scientific Method

49. Information fluency is the intersection of information literacy,
computer literacy and critical thinking.

50. An information literate individual …
Source: http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency
Determines the extent of information needed.
Accesses the needed information effectively and efficiently.
Evaluates information and its sources critically.
Incorporates selected information into one’s knowledge base.
Uses information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose.
Understands the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use
of information, and access and use information ethically and legally.

51. A computer literate individual …
Source: https://goo.gl/fmjU1
Develops some technological skills while practicing the fine art of being
“information literate”, but “computer literacy” is primarily rote learning
of software and hardware. This is NOT a static skill, however.
“Fluency with technology" focuses on understanding the underlying
concepts of technology and applying problem-solving and critical
thinking to using technology.

52. Critical Thinking defined by St. Petersburg College
The active and systemic process of communication,
problem solving, evaluation, analysis, synthesis,
and reflection, both individually and in
community, to foster understanding, support
sound decision-making, and guide action.

53. So, I think information fluency is …
… having the ability to think critically while being able to apply this
thinking across a variety of “literacies” (e.g., information,
technological, cultural, scientific etc.) in order to “foster
understanding, support sound decision-making, and guide action” in
the classroom and beyond!
communicating, problem
solving, evaluating, analyzing,
synthesizing, and reflecting on
the entire process.

54. What about Transliteracy?
Source: http://goo.gl/WUwbn
The ability to read, write and interact across a
range of platforms, tools and media from
signing and orality through handwriting, print,
TV, radio and film, to digital social networks.

55. Deduction and Induction

56. Bayesian Reasoning

57. Source: https://goo.gl/FV8N4M
Belief perseverance is the tendency to cling
to one’s initial belief even after receiving
new information that contradicts or
dis-confirms the basis of that belief.
Save the “best” fallacy for last …

58. 2 + 2 = 5

59. Image source: https://goo.gl/9EvAYL

60. “Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be
trusted with their own government; whenever things get
so far wrong as to attract their attention, they may be
relied on to set them to rights.”
Thomas Jefferson

61. Contact me!

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