Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Both Facts And Feelings: Emotion And News Literacy, Susan Currie Sivek

Journal of Media Literacy Education

News literacy education has long focused on the significance of facts, sourcing, and verifiability. While these are critical aspects of news, rapidly developing emotion analytics technologies intended to respond to and even alter digital news audiences’ emotions also demand that we pay greater attention to the role of emotion in news consumption. This essay explores the role of emotion in the “fake news” phenomenon and the implementation of emotion analytics tools in news distribution. I examine the function of emotion in news consumption and the current status of emotion within existing news literacy training programs. Finally, I offer suggestions for …

Comparing Features Of Fabricated And Legitimate Political News In Digital Environments (2016-2017), Victoria Rubin, Toluwase Victor Asubiaro

FIMS Presentations

With the problem of ‘fake news’ in the digital media, there are efforts at creation of awareness, automation of ‘fake news’ detection and news literacy. This research is descriptive as it pulls evidence from the content of online fabricated news for the features that distinguish fabrications from the legitimate political news around the time of the U.S. Presidential Elections (276 articles in total, from November 2016 - June 2017). Certain stylistic and psycho-linguistic features of fabrications may be apparent to the news readers: fewer words and paragraphs but longer paragraphs, more slangs, swear words and affective words in the stories. …

Whole-Of-Society Approach Needed Against Truth Decay, Eugene K. B. Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In an age of pervasive informationflows, governments do not defeat fake news. It's the people as a society whodo.The threatof deliberate falsehoods, or more popularly "fake news", posesserious threats to the democratic wellbeing of societies. The marketplace ofideas increasingly suffers from truth decay, propagated online or offline,imperilling an already vulnerable information ecosystem. In turn,this compromises the functioning of a democracy, which is premised on citizenshaving a shared reality rather than multiple distorted realities.

Understanding Fake News By Teaching With The Game "Factitious"., Sharell Walker

Publications and Research

This presentation introduces readers to the online game "Factitious" as a tool for teaching students about fake news. "Facititous" is a collaboration between the American University Game Lab and the American University School of Communication.

Background Interview By Elaine Lasda And Kelsey O’Brien For The Book: All That's Not Fit To Print: Fake News And The Call To Action For Librarians And Information Professionals, Elaine M. Lasda, Kelsey O'Brien

University Libraries Faculty Scholarship

Background interview by Elaine Lasda and Kelsey O’Brien for the book: All That's Not Fit to Print: Fake News and the Call to Action for Librarians and Information Professionals, by Amy Affelt (2019) London: Emerald (ISBN: 9781789733648). This interview provides perspective from two academic librarians regarding the prevalence, spread and fight against fake news in America today. One librarian works primarily with undergraduates and sees this as part of a greater need for metaliteracy education. One librarian works primarily with graduate students and faculty, and has seen effect of fake news on those groups.

Fighting Fake News And Biases With Cognitive Psychology, Marlee Givens, Seth Porter, Karen Viars, Liz Holdsworth

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Fake news, faulty data, and questionable research outputs: how do we find the truth when so much information is uncertain? Part of this problem is cognitive biases in our decision-making process. The mind will create a durable narrative around knowns and ignore unknowns. Scholar Daniel Kahneman (2012) refers to this phenomenon as, "What you see is all there is" or WYSIATI. Another common heuristic, the "availability cascade," causes the mind to prefer immediate examples that come to mind over more reliable information that is less easily recalled. These biases limit the accuracy of the information that people understand, as well …

You Deserve The Truth: Helping Students Understand The Causes And Consequences Of Fake News, Ngaire I. Smith, Heather Cyre

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Can dandelions cure cancer? Is Bill Murray running for President? Was a pizza place in New Jersey running a human trafficking ring? In this age of digital and social media it may be difficult for students to differentiate between authoritative information and fake news.

After a brief presentation on the history of fake news and its prevalence in social media, workshop participants (acting as an early college seminar class) will watch a video about the PizzaGate incident and discuss the phenomenon of fake news, why people create it, and why people share it. Next the class will develop a fake …

Who’S Evaluating The Evaluators? Cognitive Biases, Fake News, And Information Literacy, Jon C. Pope, Kim Becnel

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

In response to the increased attention to “fake news” and “alternative facts” as information challenges in the wake of the recent election cycle, librarians and educators have dramatically stepped up efforts to cultivate basic information literacy skills, especially prioritizing the careful evaluation of online sources of information. While these critical source evaluation skills are an essential component of functional information literacy, the recent emphasis on them is predicated on a model of communication that assumes that the readers of these online sources are capable—and desirous—of making informed, objective judgments about the credibility of an external information source. Rhetorical theories, however, …

Fake News And Editing: Marketing Techniques Used To Spin Controversies In Video Mediums, Alexandra Brand

Honors College Theses

This thesis explores the topic of fake news in today's digital landscape by analyzing how young adults (18-2) form and change prior opinions based on the media they consume. I measured this by showing respondents one of two bias montages in response to Google's Project Owl initiative. Project Owl is Google's controversial attempt to regulate false or abusive news by launching new feedback forms in addition to altering their algorithm in a way the company has not yet disclosed to the public (Sullivan). Each self-edited montage is two minutes in length and together they cover two radically different responses to …

In An Era Of Fake News, Information Literacy Has A Role To Play In Journalism Education In Ireland, Isabelle Courtney

Irish Communication Review

Framed by the problem of fake news and misinformation, a recent study into journalism education in Ireland focused on the overlaps that exist between two professions: journalism and librarianship. The emerging literature on fake news is overwhelmingly coming from these two disciplines. Historically both have deep roots in truth and fact and employ a specific range of tools for the evaluation of information. Librarians use a framework called information literacy, while journalism educators speak of media literacy, fact-checking and verification of sources. With the many overlaps in media and information literacy, journalists and librarians would appear to be natural partners …

Battling Fake News And Developing Digital Literacy Skills In The Legal Profession, Carol A. Watson, Caroline Osborne, Kris Niedringhaus

Presentations

Alternative facts? Truthiness? Post Truth? Hardly a day passes without someone making a reference to fake news. But why should lawyers care and what can information technology professionals and the legal academy do about it?
In order to fulfil a lawyer's duty of technology competency, digital information literacy is essential. Legal professionals must be able to locate, evaluate and use online information effectively. Evaluation of the reliability of digital information is a complex skill that must be mastered for the successful practice of law.
This program will discuss digital information literacy in the context of fake news. The session will …

"This Was Actually Fun!": Engaging Users In Conversations About Digital Literacy, Madisson Goldhawk, Erin Johnson, Lillian S. Rigling

Western Libraries Presentations

This interactive presentation highlights pop-up programming designed to improve 21st century digital literacies. The session includes an overview of activity development and reflections on its success. Participants will explore light-touch digital literacy games on their personal devices and take home tools to recreate similar programming at their library.

Information Literacy Outreach In A Fake News World, Debbie Morrow

Debbie Morrow

Information Literacy Outreach In A Fake News World, Debbie Morrow

Debbie Morrow

The Promises, Challenges, And Futures Of Media Literacy, Monica Bulger, Patrick Davison

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Media literacy has become a center of gravity for countering fake news, and a diverse array of stakeholders – from educators to legislators, philanthropists to technologists – have pushed significant resources toward media literacy programs. Media literacy, however, cannot be treated as a panacea. This paper provides a foundation for evaluating media literacy efforts and contextualizing them relative to the current media landscape. Media literacy is traditionally conceived as a process or set of skills based on critical thinking. It has a long history of development aligned along the dialectic between protection and participation. Contemporary media literacy tends to organize …

Fake News And The Caulfield Technique, Ann Agee

Faculty and Staff Publications

Students are fighting a flood. Social media, news feeds, and more saturate them with misleading and fact-free information. In his open access ebook, “Web Literacy for Student Fact Checkers” (webliteracy.pressbooks.com), Michael Caulfield lays out practical, hands on techniques for determining the validity of online information. The director of blended and networked learning at Washington State University, Vancouver, and the editor of the New Horizons column for the EDUCAUSE Review, Michael Caulfield provides four strategies students can use to fact check information they find online:

• Check for previous work
• Go upstream to the source
• Read laterally
• Circle back

In this session, …

Fake News, Post-Truth & Information Literacy, Carol A. Watson, Caroline Osborne, Kristina L. Niedringhaus

Presentations

What is fake news? How did it arise? Why does recognizing fake news matter? How do we create information literate consumers in the legal community? This program will discuss the intersection of fake news and information literacy theory. We’ll provide an overview of the rise and proliferation of fake news including highlights of historical instances; a discussion of the impact of failing to detect fake news; and strategies for creating successful information literacy programming.

Post-Facts: Information Literacy And Authority After The 2016 Election, Stefanie Bluemle

Library and Information Science: Faculty Scholarship & Creative Works

This article addresses the challenge that post-truth politics poses to teaching authority in information literacy. First, it isolates an element of the post-truth phenomenon, an element it calls post-facts, to elucidate why teaching source evaluation is not, by itself, an antidote to fake news or other evidence of Americans’ media illiteracy. Second, it addresses the implications of post-facts politics for the concept of authority as defined by the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, drawing on the work of Patrick Wilson and Max Weber to illustrate which elements of authority librarians must rethink due to recent events.

Let’S Get The Psychology Of Debate Right, David Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In the last few weeks, manySingaporeans have been exercised over the lengthy debate that ensued between anacademic and a government minister during a parliamentary committee hearing. Singaporean historian Thum Ping Tjinhad made a written submission to the Select Committee on Deliberate OnlineFalsehoods in which he asserted that the biggest purveyor of fake news inSingapore was the Government, in particular the late founding prime ministerLee Kuan Yew. When he appeared before it to flesh out hissubmission, he was questioned for over six hours by Home Affairs and LawMinister K. Shanmugam, a member of the committee, over his interpretation ofhistorical events such …

Joint Declaration On Freedom Of Expression And “Fake News,” Disinformation, And Propaganda, Mickey Huff

Secrecy and Society

No abstract provided.

Media Address "Fake News" At Cedarville Forum, Mark D. Weinstein

News Releases

Cedarville University’s Center for Political Studies, the Cedarville American Enterprise Institute (AEI) chapter and Pi Sigma Alpha, the student political science organization, will sponsor “Fake News and Actual Accomplishments” on Tuesday, Feb. 6 in the Dixon Ministry Center. This event, held in the recital hall at 7 pm, will reflect on the first year of President Trump’s leadership.

News Literacy, Sissel W. Mccarthy

Open Educational Resources

"The digital age has created the need for a new kind of literacy-a literacy that empowers news consumers to determine whether information is credible, reliable and truthful. This is not just a skill; it is a new core competency for the 21st century. So-called “fake news” is hard to spot and spreads easily, leading to disagreements over basic facts. The antidote to the growing challenges posed by this digital revolution is news literacy. This mini news literacy course includes two three-hour sessions that will teach anyone to become a more critical consumer of news. "

The News Literacy course package …

The Real Story With Fake News, Kim Mullins

Post Library Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Challenging The Internet, The Predator Of Libraries, Sandip Das, Shiv Shakti Ghosh

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The internet with its growing wings is slowly shadowing the library. It is true that the internet has brought a revolutionary change in the way information is dealt with, but the internet has also brought some perils with it. Throughout the ages, libraries have been considered as the bank of knowledge. But nowadays this faith has been challenged quite unreasonably. The evil side of the internet has manifested itself in the form of fake, false, manufactured news and information. At this juncture, it is important to burst the myth of the internet as the sole distinguished source of information and …

Detecting Fake News In Social Media Networks, Monther Aldwairi, Ali Alwahedi

All Works

© 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Fake news and hoaxes have been there since before the advent of the Internet. The widely accepted definition of Internet fake news is: fictitious articles deliberately fabricated to deceive readers'. Social media and news outlets publish fake news to increase readership or as part of psychological warfare. Ingeneral, the goal is profiting through clickbaits. Clickbaits lure users and entice curiosity with flashy headlines or designs to click links to increase advertisements revenues. This exposition analyzes the prevalence of fake news in light of the advances in communication made possible by the emergence …

Examining Student Perceptions Of Their Knowledge, Roles, And Power In The Information Cycle, Lucinda Rush

Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

This project report describes a collaborative effort between librarians, staff, local journalists and students at Old Dominion University (Norfolk, VA) to provide a venue for a discussion about ‘fake news’. Post-event questionnaire results are analysed to explore what students learned as a result of attending the event as well as student perceptions of their own understanding and ownership of the roles that they can play in the information cycle.

Fake News: What Is The Real Issue?, Hannah Hines

Honors Theses

In the 2016 election, fake news was a real, and well-publicized, story. Foreign bodies were accused of meddling in America's political system by spreading fake stories through widely used social media outlets such as Facebook, Google, and Twitter, and these stories reportedly garnered a wide audience. According to Facebook itself, Russian bot-generated fake news reached 126 million users -- almost half of the U.S. population.

There was much outcry and uproar about the fake news conundrum, with advocates and activists on all sides pointing a finger one way or the other. Many pontificated on whether these stories affected the outcome …