This presentation takes first year university students through the process of finding and selecting information online.

1. The ability to find and select information online
(AT4/EAD111)
Harry Ross/220296812

2. Why is finding and selecting information so important?
• This presentation takes first year university student through a series of
rules and steps assisting in finding and selecting the most accurate
information. From choosing the correct search engines to understanding
how the most reliable articles are set out.
• Throughout your degree or in the work force, finding and selecting
information will be vital for completing a logical, well thought out,
articulate piece of work.

3. Fake news and our post-truth society
• Along with the neo-liberalism revolution of global trade, digital
globalisation has revolutionised the way we communicate and
source information in the 21st century.
• Furthermore, fake news is becoming increasingly apparent
across the internet. Having the knowledge to source
information from reliable platforms and differentiate real from
fake news articles is vital in our post truth era. Some search
engines that are known for finding the most accurate articles
are EBSCO megafile premier, ERIC, Informit Database,
Google Scholar and Deakin Library.

4. • Although fabricated reporting and 'fake news’ has
existed throughout history in the media,
broadcasting on radios or through manipulative
propaganda demonstrated by the soviet and nazi
regimes throughout the second world war to
promote there political agendas. Social media has
provided platforms where false reporting and
distorted information is more accessible than ever
before. If facebook were a country it would be
the largest in the world, obtaining up to two-
billion users internationally. (Lance E. Mason,
Daniel G. Krutka, Jeremy Stoddard, pg 3)
‘Fake News’ progression

5. Fake news proliferation in social media
• Within social media platforms such as Facebook,
automated bots have been used to reinforce echo-
chamber content and spread disrupted rumours, leading
users to becoming surrounded by likeminded people and
exposed to opinions that reinforce their own. Recently
there has been a heightened polluting of the democratic
environment with fake news, junk science,
computational propaganda, hate speech and political
advertising. (Lance E. Mason, Daniel G. Krutka, Jeremy
Stoddard)

6. How to know if an article is accurate or not
• A series of steps should be followed to ensure the source you are about to read is accurate and reliable.
• The first step will involves finding a reliable platform to search for your information source. Avoid using
social media platforms that have been accurately accused of regenerate fake news articles, instead use search
engines such as EBSCO megafile premier, ERIC, Informit Database and Deakin Library that are know to
provide the most accurately academically checked sources.
• The second step is checking the source, authors and date of the respected article. It is easy to identify if the
source is reliable if the article is from a reliable source provides multiple authors and has a semi-recent date.
• The next step is checking the referencing list and in text citations, making sure to click on a few and read
through the content. Reading through the reference list and checking the publishers and authors will give the
readers a larger indicator on where the information has come from and how accurate it is.
• The final step is reading beyond the article. Checking the referenced articles will give the reader a solidified
understanding of the source.

7. Example of a correct in text citation
• In-text citations in the form of numbers in square brackets, e.g. [9]. Citations are numbered according to the
order of their first appearance in the body of the paper. The same number is used for each work throughout a
paper.
In text citations should be formatted as follows
Works are cited in the body of the text, in square brackets and inside punctuation marks.
• as shown by Jones [4], [5]....
• as mentioned earlier [2], [4]–[7], [9]; ...
• Nguyen [4]
• and Percy and Pirelli [5] ...
• Colonna et al. [7] ...
If the article being read has one to five authors
As Smith noted [1] ...
As Schenk and Chan stated [2] ...

8. Example of correct Harvard Deakin referencing style
A reference list at the end of the paper. This provides full bibliographic details of all in-text citations. The references are ordered
numerically.
• There are different styles of referencing dependant on the sourcing style. Ie. Websites, journal articles, Books and websites.
Example of journal article referencing without a DOI
• [1] A. A. Author and B. B. Author, “Title of article,” Abbrev. Title of Journal, vol. x, no. x, pp. xx- xx, month, year.
• [2] S. Chapman, A. St. George, K. Waller, and V. Cakic, “The pattern of complaints about Australian wind farms does not match the establishment
and distribution of turbines: support for the psychogenic, ‘communicated disease’ hypothesis,” PLOS One, vol. 8, no. 10, pp. 1-11, Oct., 2013.
Example of journal article referencing without DOI
• [1] A. A. Author. (year, month day). Title of article, Abbrev. Title of Journal [Online]. vol.(no.), pp. xx-xx. Available: URL
• [2] R. J. Vidmar. (1992, Aug.). On the use of atmospheric plasmas as electromagnetic reflectors, IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. [Online]. 21(3), pp.
876–880. Available: http://www.halcyon.com/pub/journals/21ps03-vidmar
•

9. Conclusion
• Learning how to accurate select information from the internet and
being able to differentiate fake news sources from legitimately
scholarly articles will set you up to write a well supported piece of
literature. A piece of literature that includes its own in-text citation
and referencing, so assesses can identify the legitimacy of your
work (if plagiarised) and how broadly sourced your piece of work
is.

10. Reference list
Journal
• Mason, L. E. ., Krutka, D. G. . and Stoddard, J. (2018) ‘Media Literacy, Democracy, and the Challenge of Fake News’, Journal
of Media Literacy Education, 10(2), pp. 1–10. doi: 10.23860/JMLE-2018-10-2-1.
• Margetts, H. (2019) ‘9. Rethinking Democracy with Social Media’, Political Quarterly, 90, pp. 107–123. doi: 10.1111/1467-
923X.12574
Books
• Gaspar, M & Shepherd, M 2013, Guide to assignment writing and referencing, Deakin University, Geelong, Vic.