Following are resources to which teachers and librarians are turning in order to appoint themselves arbiters of that which is and is not fake news. Now, this sounds rather pointed but it is accurate. On the other hand, these resources do offer some good guidance as to how to determine the validity of any given claim. For an example of how I did this myself, see Did the Supreme Court prove that the Smithsonian destroyed giant skeletons?
Topics covered within these sources are how to spot bias, click-baiting, conspiracy theorizing (which is referenced pejoratively even as they biasedly warn against a conspiracy of promulgating fake news), propaganda, the echo chamber concept, perfidy, analyzing authority, evaluating websites, fact-checking and I will add manufacturing news and found that one of the resources noted that “Sometimes lack of coverage is the result of corporate media bias” and “hyperbolic news coverage.”
Breaking News or Faking News…or Making Up News?
Librarians Being Proactive in “Post-truth” World by Courtney Walker
Evaluating Sources: Luck of the Draw or Skilled Play-Lesson by Courtney Walker and Daniel Asad
Truth, truthiness, triangulation: A news literacy toolkit for a “post-truth” world by Joyce Valenza
False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and/or Satirical “News” Sources by Melissa Zimdars
Students Need Our Help Detecting Fake News by Frank W. Baker
Reporting the News: Is it Real or Fake? Lesson by Cathy Rettberg
News Literacy: Truthiness and the Truth and Everything in Between and News Literacy Notes for Presentation by Erinn Salge
After Comet Ping Pong and Pizzagate, teachers tackle fake news by The Washington Post
A news literacy kit for a post-truth world by The School Library Journal
False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and/or Satirical “News” Sources by Melissa Zimdars
Website Evaluation, News Media Literacy, Fake News
Here are some relevant books:
Using Sources Effectively: Strengthening Your Writing and Avoiding Plagiarism by Robert A. Harris
A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking in the Information Age by Daniel J. Levitin
UnSpun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation by Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson
Blur: How to Know What’s True in the Age of Information Overload by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel
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