HELP STUDENTS FIGHT FAKE NEWS - AASCU's American Democracy Project Launches Initiative to - American Association of State Colleges ...
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AASCU’s American
Democracy Project
Launches Initiative to
HELP STUDENTS
FIGHT FAKE NEWS
Indiana University Kokomo
By Holly Leber Simmons is one of 11 campuses piloting the
I
DigiPo initiative, which is being
t probably takes less than two spearheaded by Michael Caulfield,
seconds to retweet an article director of Blended and Networked
or share a post on Facebook. Learning at Washington State
But how do you know the University Vancouver (WSU
information you’re passing Vancouver). ADP hopes the effort
along to your friends and followers will eliminate the spread and
From left to right, Paul
is accurate? normalization of “fake news,” as
Cook, Polly Boruff-Jones, In the era of social media and well as the pervasiveness of online
Calip Deaton, Yan He “fake news,” information literacy— “callout culture,” which has lead to
and Todd Bradley are the ability to seek and find credible what Canada referred to as a “truth
implementing the Digital
information and use it effectively— crisis.”
Polarization Initiative
at Indiana University is vital. “The chief thing that has
Kokomo. Credit: Indiana AASCU’s American changed is the democratization
University Kokomo Office Democracy Project (ADP) of the media,” Canada said.
of Media & Marketing launched the national Digital “Anyone with access to the internet
Polarization Initiative (DigiPo) to can publish anything without a
equip college students with the gatekeeper. Now readers have to be
skills they need for online civic more careful than ever before.”
reasoning, to encourage them to Information literacy can be
make positive interventions in the broken down into a series of steps:
online information environments 1. Know when you have an
they inhabit, and to elevate best information need.
practices for teaching digital 2. Be able to articulate that
fluency. need to find appropriate
“Nowadays, [students are] information sources, such as
going to go straight to Google,” relevant databases.
said Mark Alan Canada, provost at 3. Search for the information Yan He, information literacy librarian
Indiana University Kokomo (IU within those sources. and steering committee member at
Kokomo). “If you’re doing research Indiana University Kokomo, assists
4. Know how to evaluate that a student.
beyond well-known topics, you're information for validity and
not going to find much that’s timeliness.
useful.”
Summer 2018 n Public Purpose 11
4
5. Be able to use that information for the
Have an understanding of how
Methods for Vetting need at hand.
disinformation (intentional
Online Information 6. Communicate that information accurately
falsehood) is spread.
and properly.
According to the Rand Corporation
Studies have shown students have
1
study, “Truth Decay: An Initial
Look for previously trusted particular issues determining the validity of
Exploration of the Diminishing Role
work. Before clicking that online information. For instance, researchers
of Facts and Analysis in American
retweet button or sharing a post, at Stanford University analyzed over 7,800
Public Life,” the prevalence of social
go beyond your social media responses from middle school through college
media and ease of access helps students for over 18 months and found that
feeds to look at sites such as
proliferate disinformation through bots, students could not tell the difference between
Snopes or PolitiFact and check
autonomous programs that can be advertisements and news stories and had
out the range of headlines
easily mistaken for real people, as well difficulty determining the trustworthiness of
around the story, or check out
as sites such as 4Chan and Reddit. information sources.
the author’s previous work.
Two of the researchers—Sam Wineburg
and Sarah McGrew—detailed one of the study’s
tasks in a 2016 Education Week article, “Why
Students Can’t Google Their Way to the Truth.”
While comparing information on two websites,
more than half of 25 Stanford undergraduates
2 5
Go to the source. Most concluded an “article from the American
Do a reverse image search,
propaganda material will not College of Pediatricians, an organization that
also called content-based image ties homosexuality to pedophilia and which the
be based in original reporting.
retrieval (CBIR). Search engines such Southern Poverty Law Center labeled a hate
Authors with an agenda will
as TinEye Reverse Image Search or group, was ‘more reliable’” than information
resort to levelling—finding a
Google Reverse Image Search allows from the American Academy of Pediatrics, a
topical article and removing
information seekers to upload an image 66,000-member professional association of
information that does not serve
and generate search terms based on pediatricians established in 1930 that publishes
their purpose. With enough the scholarly journal Pediatrics.
that image. Reverse image searches can
incarnations, information gets “We’re asking students to think deeply
be used to find the original source of a
distorted—think of the childhood about the thing in front of them,” Caulfield said.
photo and details about it, as illustrated
game “Telephone.” Look at the “Information may lead students down the wrong
in Caulfield’s book.
original source material to get the path if they haven't done the work of figuring
full scope of the information. out where it's coming from. There’s a way to vet
before you read.” (See the sidebar on vetting for
more information.)
Many information literacy methods
designed to suit the needs of students writing
Campuses Piloting the papers are outdated, as the need for information
Digital Polarization Initiative:
3
literacy isn’t limited to the scholarly process.
Investigate the source.
Today, the challenge isn’t only academic, it’s
Where, and from whom, is
civic.
the information coming? Ask • Black Hills State University (S.D.)
“A lot of the techniques we’ve taught
yourself, “Why are these people • College of Staten Island, The City
students for how to think about sources and
in a unique position to know this University of New York
online artifacts are ill-suited to the web as we
information?” If you’re reading • Georgia College know it now,” Caulfield said. “Citizens go online
something on a website, what can • Indiana University Kokomo and are confronted with a vast array of headlines
you find out about the people who • Metropolitan State University of Denver in a day. They have to make quick assessments
run the site? Be able to identify • Millersville University of Pennsylvania of the veracity and trustworthiness. They have to
think tanks, advocacy groups or • San Jose State University (Calif.) understand how misinformation is spread, the
potential biases in information. • Texas A&M International University drivers of clickbait and astroturfing. We need to
• Texas A&M University-Central Texas give students the power to figure out where they
• University of North Carolina at can put their trust.”
Charlotte
• Washington State University Vancouver
12 Public Purpose n Summer 2018
Caufield plans to work with students “As educators, the primary thing we The habit is to check your emotions.
across the country to create Wikipedia should be trying to do is get students to “When you feel strong emotion—
pages for 1,000 local newspapers to make want to know the truth,” Canada said. “If happiness, anger, pride, vindication—and
their fundamental information more we can get them past wanting to know that emotion pushes you to share a ‘fact’
visible and to help readers verify their what is [comfortable], everything else takes with others, STOP,” he writes. “Above all,
validity. care of itself. We can initiate them into a these are the claims that you must fact-
IU Kokomo is incorporating world where truth really matters.” check.”
DigiPo lessons into several courses and On the campuses that are piloting A study at Beihang University in
disciplines, including freshman seminars, the DigiPo initiative, students are learning China found that the fastest-traveling
writing, political science, geology and to consider fundamental questions about emotion on social media is rage. To only
sustainability, targeted as appropriate to information sources: Can you tell whether read, or share, information that compels
the specific courses. information about a product is being paid us to have strong emotion is not a show of
Paul Cook, assistant professor of for by a company selling that product? good judgment.
English and director of writing at IU Can you spot the difference between an “If you’re going to make an
Kokomo, has taught several courses with editorial and an advertorial? Should sales argument, it needs to be rational, and
a specific focus on information literacy, and editorial maintain a church-and-state- based on facts and sound interpretation,”
including one titled “Literacy and Public style separation? Canada said. “On some level, we realize
Life: Fake News and Democracy in the Indeed, a discerning reader needs when people are giving us misinformation
Digital Age.” In the class, Cook asked to be able to determine when it’s the or not the whole story. We fall for things
students—so-called “digital natives” money talking and when reporting is truly that are going to satisfy our emotions or
who grew up online—to examine unbiased. The inability to do so leads not political leanings.”
their “information diet,” the sources of only to the spread of misinformation, but So what drives this bias? Is it
information, news and entertainment they to what has been labeled “information politicians? The media? Corporations?
consume on a daily basis, and by which fatigue syndrome” or even “data While “fake news and disinformation
methods. asphyxiation.” leans on what people are fascinated with,”
Polly Boruff-Jones, dean of Library “Without the ability to quickly suss Cook said, is the fault, to paraphrase
Sciences at IU Kokomo, noted the volume out whether something is worth paying Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, not in our
of information available, and the ease attention to or not, we get mentally stars, but in ourselves?
with which we can access it via social overwhelmed as this parade of things “We really bear the brunt of the
media and Google searches, has turned us streams across our streams,” Caulfield said. responsibility,” Canada said. “There are
from information seekers to information In his book Web Literacy for Student politicians who disregard the truth, but
consumers. Fact-Checkers, Caulfield coins the phrase they wouldn’t get away with it if we called
“It’s easier to take information in “four moves and a habit,” encouraging them on it more. If you only adhere to
if you’re getting news from Facebook students (and everyone) to incorporate information that accords with what you
or Twitter,” she said. “It’s just flowing four practices, or moves, and one habit believe, you’re not going to know the
to us because of (algorithms). You get into their digital consumption. truth. People have to know the truth even
information based on who you choose to if it hurts.”
The moves include the following:
follow.” He cited the famous scene from “A
1. Check for previous work. Has the
But are we simply binging on news Few Good Men,” where Jack Nicholson
claim been fact-checked?
without credibility the way we gorge shouts at Tom Cruise from the witness
2. Go upstream to the source.
ourselves on supersized fast food meals— stand, “You can’t handle the truth!”
Find the original source of the
mindlessly, recklessly, and because it’s “Everyone is prone to these biases,
information to confirm veracity. For
readily available and requires little to but in the world of higher education, we
instance, if an article refers to a claim
no effort? How can we learn to have a are supposed to be pursuing the truth
someone made in a speech, find a
balanced diet of information? regardless of what its ramifications might
transcript of the speech.
A challenge is that students often be,” Canada said. P
3. Read laterally. What can you learn
don’t appreciate being compelled to about the author of the information
consider information or perspectives they being communicated to you?
may find distasteful, particularly in the age __________________
4. Circle back. If you get lost, take
of safe spaces and trigger warnings. Holly Leber Simmons is a writer and editor
the knowledge you’ve acquired and
based in Silver Spring, Md., and principal of
start over, using more specific search
Red Pen Editorial.
terms.
Summer 2018 n Public Purpose 13
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