Presentation for North Carolina Scholastic Media Association & World View 2018 K-12 Global Education Symposium, both in Chapel Hill, N.C. October 17-18, 2018. Teaching Ideas for middle & high school teachers

1. Junk News & News Literacy
Image:https://pixabay.com/en/fake-news-media-disinformation-2355686/
Stephanie Willen Brown • swbrown@unc.edu
Librarian @ UNC’s School of Media & Journalism

2. Fake news is not fake,
nor is it news
- Alice Marwick, UNC

3. Biggest Fake News Hits on Facebook,
2017

4. What are We Talking About?
the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor
for the purpose of helping or injuring an
institution, a cause, or a person
false information deliberately & often covertly
spread (as by the planting of rumors) in order to
influence public opinion or obscure the truth
an advertisement that imitates
editorial format
related to: sponsored content
something (such as a headline) designed to
make readers want to click on a hyperlink
especially when the link leads to content
of dubious value or interest

5. What are We Talking About, II
a newspaper or magazine article
that gives the opinions of the
editors or publishers…
a literary work holding up
human vices and follies to
ridicule or scorn
a literary or musical work in which
the style of an author or work is
closely imitated for comic effect or
in ridicule
to make or set right : amend •
correct an error

6. Teaching News Literacy: What
• Checking facts – be skeptical
• Distinguish between types of information:
• Advertorial / sponsored content
• Clickbait
• Editorial / opinion
• Reported content

7. Teaching News Literacy: How
DO
• Have interactive activities
• Use a checklist
• Use Snopes for topic ideas
• Promote NCWiseOwl resources for news
• Invite journalists to talk about their work & ethical principles
DON’T
• Use emotional scenarios

8. Not much more to say, this is what happens when flowers get nuclear birth
defects
8
Would You Share This?

9. What Did Students Think?

10. 10June 18, 2017

11. What Did Students Think?

12. Localize the Activity

13. News & Opinion

14. FactCheckingDay Lesson Plan
https://factcheckingday.com/lesson-plan

15. Annotations: yellow denotes opinions, orange indicates a
fact without source, green is a fact with a source.
yellow
green
orange
https://factcheckingday.com/lesson-plan

16. Most Common
Errors
1. Misquotes
2. Incorrect headline
3. Numerical error
4. Misspelling
5. Incorrect job title
6. Incorrect name
7. Incorrect location
8. Incorrect time
9. Incorrect date
10.Incorrect address
11.Incorrect age
Activity: Errors & Corrections
• Craig Silverman, “Errors, verification and prevention”
http://bit.ly/errors-verification-prevention
• Checklist at

17. Students & Alt-Right Websites
Jennifer Rich: “Schools Must Equip Students to Navigate Alt-right Websites that Push Fake
News.” The Conversation. http://bit.ly/2CNPF6e June 19, 2018.
“More than 60 percent of America’s middle and high school students rely
on alt-right internet sites as credible sources for their research papers.
The students are using alt-right sites to write papers on topics that range
from free speech and the Second Amendment to citizenship, immigration
and the Holocaust.”

18. What is the Solution?

20. Steps to Improve Skepticism
1. Use a checklist
• Emotions = skeptical
• Check comments & advertising for potential bias
2. Confirm with multiple, credible sources
• Snopes
• NCWiseOwl news resources
• Google the title of the article, or use
keywords: great wall visible moon

23. Factitious
…
…

24. Evaluating Websites, I
• The Site
• How recent is the information? How do you know?
• What’s on the “About Us” page?
• What do you learn from a Google search?
• The Site’s Credibility
• Do they know what they’re talking about?
• How do you know?
• Are there external sources? What are they?
• Are the external sources credible?
24

25. Evaluating Websites, II
• Follow the Money: the Site’s Author or Publisher
• Is there an author?
• If unsigned, who’s the site’s publisher?
• How does the site make money?
Or, who gets paid if you click on their ads? … their links?
• Advertising & Comments
• Is there any advertising?
• Are there any comments?
• Are the comments or advertising biased?
25

26. Check the Source
Fred Fact Checks Facts. http://bit.ly/fcd-fred

27. EmotionalEmotional
https://abc11.com/sports/coach-k-makes-$3m-personal-donation-for-low-income-kids-in-durham/3541049/
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/
sports/nfl/carolina-
panthers/article219746830.html
Engaging

28. Which are Good for Teaching?
• Does a Nationwide Listeria Outbreak Affect Vegetables from
Walmart, Safeway, and Trader Joe’s?
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mann-packaged-vegetable-recall/
• Did Melania Trump Plagiarize a Pamphlet for the ‘Be Best’
Campaign?
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/did-melania-trump-plagiarize-
pamphlet/
• Are Schools Removing Analog Clocks Because Students Can’t
Read Them?
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/schools-removing-analog-clocks/
• Did Congress Eliminate All Senior and Veterans Discounts?
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/senior-and-veterans-discounts/

29. http://www.ncwiseowl.org/subject/newspapers.htm

30. AllSides.com

31. Journalists ‘Splain Journalism
• Journalists for News
Literacyhttps://www.journalistsfornewsliteracy.org/for-
teachers

32. Lesson Plans
• AllSides.com Schools lesson plans
https://www.allsides.com/schools#lessonplan
• Believe it or Not: News Literacy Activities from the Newseum
http://bit.ly/2yn5Kfk
• Project Look Sharp: Media Literacy from Ithaca College
free registration required
• Fact or Fiction? A Snopes.com and Urban Legends Activity
https://www.projectlooksharp.org/front_end.php?resource_id=386
• News Literacy (JRN101) http://drc.centerfornewsliteracy.org/course-
pack
from the Stony Brook Center for News Literacy.

33. More Resources
• AllSides.com: offers news coverage from the left, right, and
center.
• Factitious game http://factitious.augamestudio.com
• Fred Fact-checks Facts. http://bit.ly/fcd-fred
• GetBadNews: simulates what happens on social media when you
create and share “fake news.” https://www.getbadnews.com/#intro
• Journalists for News Literacy:
https://www.journalistsfornewsliteracy.org/for-teachers
• NCWiseOwl: resources for N.C. teachers &
studentshttp://www.ncwiseowl.org
• Stanford History Education Group: “Evaluating Information: The

34. Stay Current with Stephanie
• Links and checklists at: http://guides.lib.unc.edu/news-
literacy
• “News Stories: Credible of Clickbait?” Communication:
Journalism Education Today, Spring 2018.
http://bit.ly/CredibleClickbait
• Stephanie’s News Literacy Links:
https://pinboard.in/u:CogSciLibrarian/t:NewsLiteracy/
• Stephanie’s Links to News Literacy Lesson Plans
https://pinboard.in/u:cogscilibrarian/t:LessonPlans/

35. Junk News & News Literacy
Image:https://pixabay.com/en/fake-news-media-disinformation-2355686/
Stephanie Willen Brown • swbrown@unc.edu
Librarian @ UNC’s School of Media & Journalism
Question image: https://pixabay.com/en/alphabet-waffle-letter-typography-3188846/