UMass Journalism News Literacy Week 13: Deconstructing Social Media
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Slideshow for Week 13 of News Literacy class.
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UMass Journalism News Literacy Week 13: Deconstructing Social Media
- 2. After this lecture, you should be able to: 1. Apply News Literacy deconstruction techniques to a variety of reports on a variety of news platforms. 2. Know how and where to go to verify the authenticity and reliability of information on the Internet. 3. Post information on the Internet responsibly.
- 3. Would you share this?
- 4. Would you share this? Man_jumps_out_of_airplane_without_parachute_onto_trampoline.mp4
- 5. I-M-V-A-I-N A SYSTEM FOR EVALUATING THE RELIABILITY OF SOURCES Independent sources are better than self-interested sources
- 6. I-M-V-A-I-N A SYSTEM FOR EVALUATING THE RELIABILITY OF SOURCES Independent sources are better than self-interested sources
- 7. I-M-V-A-I-N A SYSTEM FOR EVALUATING THE RELIABILITY OF SOURCES Independent sources are better than self-interested sources Multiplesourcesarebetterthansinglesources
- 8. I-M-V-A-I-N A SYSTEM FOR EVALUATING THE RELIABILITY OF SOURCES Independent sources are better than self-interested sources SourceswhoVerifywithevidencearebetterthansourceswhoassert Multiplesourcesarebetterthansinglesources
- 9. I-M-V-A-I-N A SYSTEM FOR EVALUATING THE RELIABILITY OF SOURCES Namedsourcesarebetterthanunnamedsources Authoritative/Informed sources arebetterthanuninformedsources
- 10. I-M-V-A-I-N A SYSTEM FOR EVALUATING THE RELIABILITY OF SOURCES Namedsourcesarebetterthanunnamedsources Authoritative/Informed sources arebetterthanuninformedsources
- 11. I-M-V-A-I-N A SYSTEM FOR EVALUATING THE RELIABILITY OF SOURCES Namedsourcesarebetterthanunnamedsources Authoritative/Informed sources arebetterthanuninformedsources
- 12. Abraham Lincoln @realAbrahamLincoln Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet just because there’s a photo with a quote next to it. A key challenge facing digital-age news consumers is a crisis of authenticity.
- 14. But first, you need to be able to decide what’s true.
- 15. What you should take with a grain of salt.
- 16. And what’s a rumor … or worse.
- 18. But once it’s out there, it’s out there.
- 19. Paris Attacks Give Rise to Fakes and Misinformation BY KATIE ROGERS THE NEW YORK TIMES “…What happened in Paris fits into a pattern of behavior that seems to emerge every time a catastrophe strikes in real time: People will share anything online in
- 20. After Paris, lights out on the truth
- 21. Here’s the world-renowned street artist Banksy’s take on the tragedy. … Or is it?
- 22. How could you know? Just check the bio on “therealbanksy” Twitter account.
- 23. But there is another side to crowdsourcing – social media outlets dedicated to correcting misinformation.
- 32. The digital age’s information revolution has transformed the landscape for news producers and news consumers. But one constant remains. You need to ask a two-word question: Says
- 33. I-M-V-A-I-N THE SAME SYSTEM CAN HELP YOU EVALUATE DIGITAL CONTENT Namedsourcesarebetterthanunnamedsources Authoritative/Informed sources arebetterthanuninformedsources Independent sources are better than self-interested sources SourceswhoVerifywithevidencearebetterthansourceswhoassert Multiplesourcesarebetterthansinglesources
- 35. Independent sources are better than self-interested sources Multiplesourcesarebetterthansinglesources
- 43. SourceswhoVerifywithevidencearebetterthansourceswhoassert BLOG POST ON RELEASE DATE Hello World, Rumblr started as a portfolio project to help us launch our creative consulting agency, von Hughes. We’re a team of college dropouts with backgrounds in marketing, design, and engineering. Rumblr came about organically as a funny idea amongst a group of friends, but quickly budded into an opportunity to showcase our branding skills … “So long as media outlets eagerly heap free publicity on exposure-seeking grifters without corroborating their claims, no disincentive exists to dissaude them from clogging up social media fanciful tales of horrifying (but fake) app concepts.”
- 45. Authoritative/Informed sources arebetterthanuninformedsources Disclaimer WNDR assumes however all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content. All characters appearing in the articles in this website – even those based on real people – are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any persons, living, dead, or undead is purely a miracle.
- 47. Deconstruction Is deconstruction Step 1 Summarize the main points, comparing headline to the story Step 2 Did the reporter open the freezer? Is the evidence direct or indirect? Step 3 Evaluate the sources using IMVAIN Step 4 Does the reporter make his/her work transparent? Step 5 Does the reporter place the facts, the story, in context? Step 6 Are the key questions answered? (Who-What-When-Where-Why-How) Step 7 Is the story fair? Is balance called for? What about fair play and language?
Editor's Notes
- Today we explore how the deconstruction techniques we learned over the past two weeks can be applied to digital-age media – from social media posts to viral videos and websites.
- This slide intended for instructors as a focusing tool, but can be shared with students to prime them. Each lecture will include a slide like this with specific lecture outcomes that refer to course outcomes. Here is what the syllabus declares students will be able to do if they successfully complete the course: Analyze key elements of news reports - weighing evidence, evaluating sources, noting context and transparency - to judge reliability. Distinguish between journalism, opinion journalism and un-supported bloviation. Identify and distinguish between news media bias and audience bias. Blend personal scholarship and course materials to write forcefully about journalism standards and practices, fairness and bias, First Amendment issues and their individual Fourth Estate rights and responsibilities. Use examples from each day’s news to demonstrate critical thinking about civic engagement. Place the impact of social media and digital technologies in their historical context.
- A viral video purportedly shows a man jumping from a plane 9,000 feet above the earth with no parachute through a small opening in a roof and onto a trampoline. Knowing what you know today, would you share it?
- Insert video here to play automatically (or click on hyperlink to launch in youtube)
- Let’s apply the IMVAIN system to evaluate the source of the information to determine its reliability. Is the video from an independent source or is their self-interest involved? Twitter and Facebook are great tools for launching a viral video. Looking through the many tweets, we found an odd one with the title “This Really Happened at our California Park.” An Internet search turned up various articles reporting the improbable jump, and several mentioned Sector 6, a trampoline park opening in New Orleans. It has a Facebook page, where one of the videos shows the skydive – and includes the line “This Really Happened at our California Park.”
- And this version of the video ends with the logos of the new park and its sister site in California. Whatever else this video is, it’s not independent. It appears to have been created to promote the new venue.
- Multiple or single? The question of corroboration. On the surface, the answer might be multiple because stories about the video can be found on numerous websites, including the London-based Daily Mail’s news site. But they all show the same video. You won’t find any independent coverage of the event anywhere. Not the New York Times or the L.A. Times or CNN. If you were staging this dramatic event, would you forget to alert the media?
- Video, News Lit teaches us, is the most powerful form of verification. Seeing is believing, right? The power of this video is what’s drawing all the attention. But is it authentic? There are no obvious signs of manipulation. But one online commenter noticed something odd. The spot where the video signal dramatically halts, putting the error messages “Connection Lost” and “End of stream” on screen mimics a common error screen from the popular game Minecraft – right down to the odd capitalization. Coincidence? Not likely …
- Is our source authoritative, informed … or even identified? No one is named in the video. No names, no credentials. The closest we get is the jumper identified only as “Travis.” Another interesting choice. The closest thing to this video on You Tube is a 7-year-old video featuring extreme sports athlete Travis Pastrama, who jumped from a plane with no parachute but used two companions with chutes to slow his descent. It was a stunt created to promote Red Bull. Would he do something even more daring and not be fully identified? Wouldn’t his home page or Twitter account mention the event or show the video. There’s no mention on either, nor can you find any mention of the jump on skydiving news sites.
- So who made the video? The final scene showing Travis being celebrated after the jump flashes an ID – “Sky Newz viral” No such news organization exists. It’s an obvious play on the name of Britain-based Sky News, a news and entertainment company.
- Not independent. Not multiple. Verification is in doubt. No authoritative source in sight. No real names. Would you share it as news?
- The challenge is not new, but the tools to deceive are more widely available and more convincing. There are too many fakes out there to take almost anything at face value.
- We need to apply the key lessons we’ve learned to not only become better news consumers but also responsible news producers.
- Is it journalism? Is it true?
- Sometimes, the best a news consumer can do is to look at news reports with some skepticism., to take into account concerns of self-interest and limited proof.
- And sometimes, what we see is rumor or even something more troubling. This image began to circulate on social media the Saturday after the Paris attacks claiming to show one of the Paris attackers wearing a suicide bomb vest. It was even shared by one of the largest — though unofficial — pro-ISIS channels on Telegram, the app that the extremist group used to take credit for the attacks in Paris.
- The problem is that the man was not a Muslim extremist wearing a suicide bomber vest and holding a Kuran. He’s a Sikh gamer holding an iPad who was victimized by a rival using Photoshop, Buzzfeed reported.
- But before word got out of the fabrication, it appeared on the front page of a Spanish newspaper and was widely shared
- We’ve discussed on a number of occasions the power of social media to do good – uncovering information through crowdsourcing – and, sadly, to do harm, as in the case of Reddit’s search for the Boston Marathon bombers. The Paris terrorist attacks earlier this month showed both.
- Among the spurious posts were photos and videos that told us the lights on the Eiffel Tower had gone dark after the attacks – for the first time since 1889, some said. The video that was widely shared of the Eiffel Tower’s lights being switched off was actually from January, in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks. Actually, the tower goes dark daily at 1 a.m. But SkyNews posted it and the New York Post, among many others, re-posted it. (Nor, by the way, did the Empire State Building change its colors.)
- The “Banksy” Twitter account is a hoax account (or “fan account”, as its bio says) that regularly reposts other artists’ work without credit. The Eiffel Tower image was actually created by Jean Jullien.
- The “Banksy” Twitter account is a hoax account (or “fan account”, as its bio says) that regularly reposts other artists’ work without credit. The Eiffel Tower image was actually created by Jean Jullien:
- Organizations like Grasswire use crowdsourcing to correct misinformation online. Listen to an interview with Joanne Stocker, managing editor of Grasswire, on last week’s episode of “On the Media,” where she spoke with co-host Brooke Gladstone. (Click to start)
- The problem is that the man was not a Muslim extremist wearing a suicide bomber vest and holding a Kuran. He’s a Sikh gamer holding an iPad who was victimized by a rival using Photoshop, Buzzfeed reported.
- On Nov. 13, 2015, the day ISIS attacked several sites in Paris, France, the website for the Powdered Wig Society, a partisan group (when you go to their webpage you’ll receive a message urging you to vote for Donald Trump), posted this story and circulated it on social media. http://powderedwigsociety.com/first-syrian-refugees-arrive-in-new-orleans/#
- The website Conservative Treehouse takes it and runs with it, and later updates with a letter from Governor and presidential candidate Bobby Jindal to Pres. Obama. Jindal seeks to ban Syrian refugees from the state.
- The image and link make the rounds thru social media, in an apparent attempt to stir fear among Americans that refugees will perpetrate an attack like the one in Paris on the 13th.
- The image in these false headlines is actually from a Sept. 3, 2015, article in the Calgary Sun. And it depicts refugees in Hungary, not New Orleans.
- In fact, only 14 refugees have entered New Orleans. http://www.wwltv.com/story/news/local/2015/11/15/officials-14-syrian-refugees-get-access-louisiana-year/75828694/
- “On the Media” put out a new Breaking News Consumer’s Handbook – a Terrorism Edition – and, by the way, this one and all the earlier editions can be found on Blackboard among your handouts. When it comes to social media, the key takeaways are in the final two points. Think before you tweet – and be patient. Follow the story.
- One of the first lessons of the semester – A story is only as reliable as the sources it is based on – applies to digital-age media as well.
- Every tweet has a source. Every website is put up by someone. Use the same tools you use to judge the reliability of news sources to decide how much trust to invest in the content you see online.
- A startling development, if it’s true. But what is the FARS News Agency?
- The website’s “About Us” and “Contact” links just take you to more stories. But at emergent.info, journalist Craig Silverman’s excellent fact-checking site, we discover that this story – shared more than 70,000 times – is propaganda from the Iranian government. It’s certainly not independent. And this is a story you won’t find on any reputable news site.
- Let’s get ready to Rumblr. Earlier this month (November 2015), promotion for an app called Rumblr have been making the rounds on social media, including Instagram.
- The app is described as Tinder for Fight Club, through which users can arrange to fight each other. Recreational fighters Matt Henderson and Jack Kim are quoted in the article, making the app seem legitimate. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3310184/Tinder-Fighting-app-lets-challenge-people-brawls-Rumblr-pits-users-against-bare-knuckle-clashes.html
- The Daily News caught wind of Rumblr and produced a story on it. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/rumblr-tinder-fighting-app-launch-beta-nov-9-article-1.2427623
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3310184/Tinder-Fighting-app-lets-challenge-people-brawls-Rumblr-pits-users-against-bare-knuckle-clashes.html Both the Daily News and Daily Mail stories quote the “creators” of the app, but performed no further verification.
- When no app was launched, Snopes was on top of it. http://www.snopes.com/rumblr/
- Snopes: As is often the case, the media hoaxers behind Rumblr claimed they intended to create a career-launching viral phenomenon while simultaneously maintaining an altruistic motive (in this case, the oft-present goal of "raising awareness"). And so long as media outlets eagerly heap free publicity on exposure-seeking grifters without corroborating their claims, no disincentive exists to dissuade them from clogging up social media fanciful tales of horrifying (but fake) app concepts.
- Every tweet has a source. Every website is put up by someone. Use the same tools you use to judge the reliability of news sources to decide how much trust to invest in the content you see online.
- World News Daily Report is not produced by an independent news organization with a verification process. Unlike the Fars news agency, the About Us and FAQ do bring you web pages that give you reason to suspect the credibility of the stories you read there.
- One of the most obvious clues that something is amiss comes from checking the credentials of the writer. Often, dubious websites have no bylines. In this case, well, the reporter is named. Well, sort of. Here, clicking on the reporter’s byline doesn’t generate an email or any sense of accountability. Not that the reporter’s bio inspires great confidence, but it makes clear that this is not a real news site.
- All of these steps still apply, though many don’t come into play until you determine whether what you are dealing with is, in fact, journalism. But let’s take a moment to offer a word or two of caution about Step 1.