WHAT IS FAKE NEWS
C-Span Classroom has pretty good page with resources for teaching fake news including several video clips. You can see one of them below and a lesson I copied from their page.
Here are a couple of good background articles about fake news.
Here are a couple of good background articles about fake news.
HOW TO EVALUATE WEBSITES
HOW TO SPOT FAKE NEWS
DETECTING MEDIA BIAS
This excellent lesson comes from PBS.
OverviewStudents will view the We The Voters film “MediOcracy,” and then examine current news stories and how they’re covered by the three main cable news outlets. They will conclude by examining news stories for bias/point of view.
Materials
Film Viewing: Have students view the We The Voters film “MediOcracy.” Discuss how their responses during the warm-up discussion may have aligned with the idea of “incestuous amplification” (selecting news sources to reinforce our own views) as defined in the film.
Media Website Examination: Have students complete Handout #1: Media Website Examination. Students will go to three cable news outlets and examine the top three home page and politics page news stories, including original and aggregated pieces, focusing on headlines. Next, students will choose a topic addressed on all three networks and read a story from each network to examine for point of view. Have students look for a top-of-the-page topic that addresses politics or public policy. Discuss students’ findings when finished. What facts were included in all three stories? Was there one news source that contained facts the other two did not? Why might that be? What did you notice about the language/word choice? Was there leading or subjective language to favor one point of view over another?
Share over Social Media: After completing the handout, have students share their thoughts about the media via social media! Using the Twiiter #DecodingMediaBias, answer the following question: In what ways do you think the media shows bias?
OverviewStudents will view the We The Voters film “MediOcracy,” and then examine current news stories and how they’re covered by the three main cable news outlets. They will conclude by examining news stories for bias/point of view.
Materials
- We The Voters film, “MediOcracy”
- Copies of Student Handout #1: Media Website Examination
- CNN: http://www.cnn.com
- Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com
- MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.com
Film Viewing: Have students view the We The Voters film “MediOcracy.” Discuss how their responses during the warm-up discussion may have aligned with the idea of “incestuous amplification” (selecting news sources to reinforce our own views) as defined in the film.
Media Website Examination: Have students complete Handout #1: Media Website Examination. Students will go to three cable news outlets and examine the top three home page and politics page news stories, including original and aggregated pieces, focusing on headlines. Next, students will choose a topic addressed on all three networks and read a story from each network to examine for point of view. Have students look for a top-of-the-page topic that addresses politics or public policy. Discuss students’ findings when finished. What facts were included in all three stories? Was there one news source that contained facts the other two did not? Why might that be? What did you notice about the language/word choice? Was there leading or subjective language to favor one point of view over another?
Share over Social Media: After completing the handout, have students share their thoughts about the media via social media! Using the Twiiter #DecodingMediaBias, answer the following question: In what ways do you think the media shows bias?
PERSONAL BIAS AND MEDIA BIAS--PBS
INSIDE RUSSIA'S PROPAGANDA MACHINE
How does Russia try to influence US media with false information. This clip from the PBS Newshour in July 2017 explains how Russia convinced the American media and Trump that Google changed its search engine so that favorable information about Clinton would come out first. It was Russian propaganda and and not false but repeated by Russia's machine so often and in so many media markets that it seemed true.
This might be a good clip to show the subtle ways in which fake news spreads. |
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Fake News and 2016 Election
Here's an interesting clip from the PBS Newshour about the proliferation of fake news on social media like Facebook and Twitter. Buzzfeed reporter Craig Silverman and his colleagues compared the top 20 fake news articles from the three months leading up to the election to the top 20 from actual news sites and found that engagement was much higher for the fake sources than the real ones.
Fake News Quiz
Here's a great way for kids to test their knowledge of fake news. It comes from Factitious and is set up like quiz. It has three rounds and students determine if the source is real or fake. It's updated often to reflect current or recent news.