📰Fake news and lateral reading
📰Fake news and lateral reading
💬discuss...
How does "fake news" spread?Â
How often do you fact check information online?
What are some ways we can avoid spreading fake news?Â
What is lateral reading? 📖
Evaluating a source's credibility by verifying information across several other sources. Instead of reading ⬇ the page, you leave the site and consult multiple sources ↔ across tabs.Â
Let's check out this video on debunking the Denver Airport conspiracy theory.
Let's practice reading laterally...
💻Background InformationÂ
This Tweet was posted after a 2018 national student walkout, in which students protested gun violence.Â
The "GOP" is another name for the Republican Party.
Republicans tend to be against restricting gun ownership.Â
How trustworthy do you think this tweet is as a source of information about why teens participated?Â
🔑 Key Question: Who is behind the information?Â
💼A case study in misinformation
📖Read
You and your partner will read four different sources on an incident involving the spread of false statistics. These include a newspaper article, a survey, a journal article and tweets. Each pair will answer the question on their sheet . Be prepared to share your response with the class.Â
Question 1:Â According to these sources, who is responsible for the inaccurate information? Cite evidence.
Question 2: How did your understanding of the facts change as you read different accounts of this story in different media forms?Â
Question 3: Who might benefit from this message and who might be harmed by it?Â
Question 4: How might the false reporting of this statistic impact the primary concern to stop harassment on campus?
Question 5: How do you decide what is credible when you see a tweet, read a news story or study a research report? How did you decide whether these particular sources were credible?