The presentation by Joan Naturale on March 22, 2017, addresses the prevalence and types of fake news, highlighting a Stanford University study that found students struggle to judge the credibility of online news. It emphasizes the importance of digital news literacy, critical thinking skills, and the use of fact-checking resources to combat misinformation. The document also provides various resources and definitions related to media literacy, emphasizing the need for greater awareness in navigating online information.

1. Presentation by Joan Naturale
22 March 2017
Fake News

2. Topics
• Stanford University Study
• Prevalence of Fake News
• Different types of Fake News
• Proactive strategies for Critical Thinking Skills
• Identify sources of accurate info online
• Newspaper, Magazine, Video & Encyclopedia Databases
• Resources
• Glossary

3. Definitions
According to the fact-checking website, Politifact,
"Fake news is made-up stuff, masterfully manipulated to look like
credible journalistic reports that are easily spread online to large
audiences willing to believe the fictions and spread the word.“
Post-truth or truthiness
Oxford Dictionaries recently announced post-truth as its 2016
international Word of the Year. Oxford defines the word as relating
to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential
in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.

4. vs.
Propagan
da
Alternative
Facts!

5. https://medium.com/@tobiasrose/empathy-to-democracy-b7f04ab57eee#.100kciuhj

6. Stanford University Study 22 November 2016
• Studied middle, high school, and college students in 12 states
with 7,804 students.
• Study indicated that students have trouble judging the credibility
of online news, Facebook and Twitter feeds, photographs, videos,
blog posts and other digital messages
• Struggled to distinguish ads from articles, neutral sources from
biased ones, and fake accounts from real ones.
• Lack of verification skills
• Digital news literacy curriculum to address critical thinking skills
needed

8. Fake/Hoax News
Fake/Hoax News - news that is
fabricated with the intention of
misleading or confusing readers

9. Misleading News

10. Satire

11. Mimic Websites
http://abcnews.com.co/

12. ‘alternative facts’
http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/key-trump-adviser-has-disturbing-ties-anti-semitic-groups
https://www.infowars.com/

13. Clickbait
False Headline—article is something different. People
who post these get revenues from number of clicks

14. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkwWcHekMdo

15. Fact-Checking Sites
•FactCheck.org
A project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, this nonpartisan,
nonprofit seeks to "reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. Politics
(FactCheck.org - About Us)."
•Snopes.com
One of the internet's oldest rumor and fact-checking websites. Owner is apolitical.
•Politifact
"PolitiFact is a fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others
who speak up in American politics. PolitiFact is run by editors and reporters from the Tampa Bay Times.

16. CRAAP-Criteria to Find the Best Sources
• Currency-Source is recent and has info about the latest
advances and ideas
• Relevance-Source is related to your topic and helps to
support your argument
• Authority-The author is known and is an expert
• Accuracy-Facts are correct and backed up by citations
• Purpose-Source is intended to provide info and presents
multiple views of an argument or makes a strong case for
one side supported by citations

18. Databases
• Use our databases
– News and Newspapers (check out AllSides website)
– Image Collections (AP Photo Archive)
– Video Collections
– Encyclopedias-Check the RIT Libraries Catalog for subject
encyclopedias on all topics. Many can be borrowed
– CQ Researcher
– Opposing Viewpoints

19. Resources
• Evaluating Information Tutorial
• Melissa Zimdars’s Guide
• Chrome Extension Detects Fake News
• Dr. Nicole A. Cooke – Fake News Resources
• Dr. Nicole A. Cooke-Fake News Resource #2
• Fake News Resource Sheets
• Blue Feed, Red Feed
• Verification Handbook
• 10 Ways to Spot a Fake News Story

20. Organizations
• Several educational and non-profit institutions organize around the principles of media literacy and have additional
resources available to assist you. Links to some of these organizations including a brief description from their website
are below.
• Center for Media Literacy (CML)
"An educational organization dedicated to promoting and supporting media literacy education as a framework for
accessing, analyzing, evaluating, creating, and participating with media content."
• Media Literacy Now
"Provides policy and advocacy information, expertise, and resources to develop state laws to implement media literacy
education in schools."
• National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE)
“Dedicated to media literacy as a basic life skill for the 21st century, helping individuals of all ages develop the habits of
inquiry and skills of expression that they need to be critical thinkers, effective communicators, and active citizens.”
• The News Literacy Project (NLP)
"A nonpartisan national education nonprofit that works with educators and journalists to teach middle school and high
school students how to sort fact from fiction in the digital age."
• The Poynter Institute
“Since its founding in 1975, The Poynter Institute has had one goal: to elevate journalism. Poynter launched the
International Fact-Checking Network and each year, Poynter trains thousands of journalists around the world.”

21. Love Among the Ruins: The Vancouver Kiss Couple
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlzNQFcUQVU
1. http://youthandmedia.org/teaching-and-outreach/workshops/info
rmation-quality-news-literacy/lamp-camp
/
2. https://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/24/overlooked-vancou
ver-video-shows-kissing-couple-was-knocked-down-by-riot-police
/
3. http://dlrp.berkman.harvard.edu/node/25

23. Examples of Articles’
Claims
Compare these two links. Which one do you think is true? Why or why not?
1 - Eat This Not That: Shocking Facts About Farmed Salmon
2 - Washington State Department of Health: Farmed vs. Wild Salmon
1-ObamacareRepeal is Moving Forward. When Will Changes Affect Consumers?
2-30 Million People Lost their Healthcare in the Dead of Night
1--Obama Forgives $7.7 Billion Dollars Of Student Loan Debt
2--Obama to forgive the student debt of permanently disabled people
Spoon University: Drinking Tequila Could Help You Lose Weight Can you find enough
evidence to prove or disprove this claim?
Anonymous: Ten Signs the Global Elite are Losing Control Lots of claims here. Pick one or
two and check to your heart's content.
Counter Current News: Marijuana Does Not Lower IQ Up for the challenge of proving or
disproving this one?

24. Glossary News Literacy Vocabulary
confirmation bias: the tendency to believe information is credible if it conforms to the reader’s/viewer’s existing belief
system, or not credible if it does not conform
container collapse: my own term for our trouble discerning the original information container, format or information type–
blog, book, pamphlet, government document, chapter, magazine, newspaper, journal, or section of the newspaper or
magazine or journal–once publishing cues are removed and every source looks like a digital page or a printout.
content farm or content mill: a company that employs a staff of freelance writers to create content designed to satisfy search
engine retrieval algorithms with the goal of attracting views and advertising revenue.
echo chamber: “In news media an echo chamber is a metaphorical description of a situation in which information, ideas, or
beliefs are amplified or reinforced by transmission and repetition inside an “enclosed” system, where different or competing
views are censored, disallowed, or otherwise underrepresented.” (Wikipedia)
fact checking: the act of verifying assertions either prior to publication or after dissemination of the content
filter bubble: When search tools present with the stories we are likely to click on or share based on our past activity,
potentially affirming our biases, we need may be experiencing what Eli Pariser calls a filter bubble

25. Glossary
herding phenomenon: as more journalists begin to cover a story, even more journalists are likely to join the herd, imitating
the angle the story initially took rather than developing alternate or original approaches or angles.
native advertising: paid, sponsored content designed to look like the legitimate content produced by the media outlet
satisficing: a portmanteau of the words satisfy and suffice introduced by Herbert Simon in 1956 to refer to the tendency
of people, bounded by time limitations, to select good enough information over optimal information
triangulation or cross verification: Researchers establish validity by using several research methods and by analyzing and
examining multiple perspectives and sources in the hope that diverse viewpoints will can shed greater light on a topic.
virality: the rapid circulation of media from one user to another. When we forward sensational stories, often from social
media without checking their credibility in other sources, we increase their virality.