Context: Fake News

This week you will have the opportunity to watch a webinar on Journalism, Fake News, and Disinformation." It is hosted in partnership with the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, and featuring MediaSmarts, marking Global Media Information and Literacy Week.

It is being offered by a non-profit educational organization called the Center for Global Education

On Tuesday, October 27 from 10-11 am, there will be a live stream event that you can watch on youtube: Livestream: https://youtu.be/MjL2CLBbmgk

You can watch the recording after if you miss the "LIVE Recording".

Evaluating the credibility of a website. (The following text is from ADLC online resources)

Millions of websites are available, ranging from corporate sites to those created by young children. Anyone can publish almost anything on the Internet, so determining if the content creator has any real expertise in the subject area may be difficult. When you are looking for information, evaluate the authenticity, quality, and usefulness of any website before you use it for research. Ask yourself the following questions:

Credibility

• Is there an author? Is the page signed?

• Is the author qualified? An expert? How do you know? How can you find out? If not, how legitimate is the information?

• Is there a Contact Us button? Can you contact the author for more information or for permission to use material? If not, how legitimate is the information?

• Is there an About Us button? Can you find out more about the sponsor of the site? If not, how legitimate is the information?

• Is the sponsor a legitimate or reputable organization? How can you tell? If not, how legitimate is the information?

• If the page includes neither a signature nor a sponsor, is there any other way to determine its origin? If not, how legitimate is the information?

More information about the site

• Look for a header or footer: Information about the author and the site sponsor may be provided.

• Look at the URL and the domain:.com—a commercial site.edu—an educational institution.gov—a government site.org—an organization, usually non-profit.net—administrative sites in North America

Sometimes you will see an indication of the country of origin, such as .uk for the United Kingdom, .ca for Canada, or .au for Australia. See a comprehensive list here.

• Search for more information: Use your search engine to find more about the author, the article, and the sponsoring organization. You may be able to verify the reputation of the author or organization through additional searching.

• Contact the page sponsor to find more: E-mail the author or page sponsor if you want more information.

Accuracy and Currency

• Up-to-date or timely: Is a date given on the publication or a date for revisions to the site?

• Factual: Are the sources documented from other reputable sources? How can you verify the accuracy of the information?

• Supporting evidence: Are statistics or other evidence of research provided? Are the sources of information referenced according to proper documentation standards?

• Comprehensive: Are all important facts included, or is some important information omitted?

• Quality control: Are there spelling and typographical errors?

• Links: Are the links current or have they been moved? Moved links probably indicate the site is old and has not been revised lately.

More information about the site

Objectivity

• Does the information show a minimum of bias?

• Is the page designed to sway opinion?

• Is there any advertising on the page?

Download the attached checklist to evaluate a website.

Using a search engine: A search engine is a computer program designed to help find information on the Internet. It works by web crawling, indexing, and searching existing web pages and then storing the information it locates for retrieval by users.

The world's most popular search engine is Google, which has several versions in several languages. Google allows users to search data bases of webpages for information, images, and current news items.

Keywords: Users come to the search engine and make queries by entering keywords. The engine looks up the index and provides a listing of best-matching web pages according to its criteria, usually with a short summary containing the document's title and sometimes parts of the text. To refine your search, put quotation marks around the terms you want searched.

For example, if you were looking for information about residential schools in Alberta, enter "residential schools Alberta" complete with the quotation marks. Otherwise, the search engine will look for those terms separately and provide you with some irrelevant web pages. Most search engines support the use of the terms AND, OR, and NOT to further refine the search.

Take notes: When you have located accurate and relevant information, you need to take notes. Do not to just copy and paste the text! If you do that, you are using someone else's work as your own. That is plagiarism and is not permitted! Always keep track of your sources. While researching the Internet, record for your bibliography all the URLs (addresses) of the sites you use.

Additional Fake News Resources: (Eg. MediaBias Chart , FactsCan, & Snopes & Fake News)

1) Questions to consider:

CREDIBILITY:

How do you assess the sources to check credibility/ Bias?

How do you find out what is happening around Alberta, Canada, The World? What do you do to ensure that the source is NOT giving you Fake News?

What current leaders do you believe ? Why do you believe some leaders and not others?

2) Choose one of the following digital means of reflection to share your feelings, reactions and /or responses - make sure you add your picture to your response.

• Blogging (How to create a googlesites)

• Writing (Examples of how to write a Reflection)

• Podcasts (Starting Your Podcast)

• Journaling (Using google.docs to Journal)

• Sketch noting (Getting Started with Sketch noting)

• Creating Videos (How to Create YouTube Videos)

• Write a song (Writing Lyrics)

• Slam Poetry (Steve Colman - Wanna Hear a Poem)

• Dance (Choreograph Your Own Dance)

• Graphic Organizers (Google Drawings)

• Dance (Choreograph Your Own Dance)

• Photo Essays (Steps for Photo Essays)

How to Create a Photo Essay

• "How To Handbook" Writing - (Technical Writing)

Handbook Writing - Online course

Consider adding the #WalkMyWorld Hashtag to your reflections if you decide to share them with social media.

The more creative the better.....:)