[Music]
I’ve always been obsessed with
information when I was a kid I remember
even then being obsessed whenever my
parents or my siblings were having a
conversation eight-year-old me would
immediately start asking questions who
are you talking about why where did you
hear that
what difference does that make what
happens next it would get so annoying
that my sister would say to me are you
writing a book I wasn’t I was just
interested in information I like to know
things a few years later the internet
came along and I spent a lot of time
surfing the web reading articles
blogging and learning how to code on web
pages probably too much time to be
honest I became obsessed all over again
with the idea of instant information it
was readily available everywhere the
good the bad and the bizarre I devoured
it I dare say that people probably
thought I was becoming the Internet at
that point fast forward a few years and
that obsession with how I and others use
technology to get information led me to
my master’s program in Library and
Information science I’ve been an
information professional for several
years now and I am gloriously surrounded
by the Internet there’s a lot of news
out there on the the web and I have a
daily news ritual so the first thing I
do when I get up in the morning is I
grab a cup of coffee and I immediately
search the news either on my desktop or
my phone I see things about celebrities
now the government national disasters
and I still follow the oddities for fun
there’s a lot of news out there and it’s
gotten much much harder to tell what is
real from what is not real the constant
stream of information that were
assaulted with on a daily basis some of
it blatantly false and some of it
convincingly false makes to
understanding what real news is more
important that at any other time in
history so when I say fake news I want
to make sure you understand what I mean
fake news comes in a few varieties and I
want to be clear what I’m talking about
tabloid news like the National Enquirer
and satirical news
the onion have been around a while some
as long as 50 years tabloids host
sensational stories about celebrities
oddities and sometimes complete fiction
satirical news presents pop culture in a
comedic way and it’s often a commentary
on social issues this isn’t the kind of
fake news that dominates our discourse
these days however I’m talking about the
spreading of false information as fact
either deliberately misleading or not
that gets shared by people on the
Internet be it by retweets bloggers
Facebook posts or any of the other ways
that people share information how do we
know that this is causing a problem in a
recent study by the Stanford history
education group which looked at middle
and high school students
80% of middle school students couldn’t
tell the difference between real and
fake news high school students accepted
photographic evidence of a supposed
Fukushima radiation effect on daisies
which caused them to mutate in a way
that’s unnatural without asking any
questions about the image what evidence
in the image is there that this was
caused by nuclear radiation aside from
the posters comments can we believe what
we see is real in the age of Photoshop a
study by researchers at the University
of Warwick found that people have a poor
ability to identify when a real-world
image is original or has been
manipulated what about sponsored content
those are articles that are essentially
elaborate infomercials in the form of
news students couldn’t tell the
difference between sponsored content in
real news either according to the
Stanford history education study
this problem isn’t just affecting our
students though many adults are
struggling with the same problems many
of us were never taught how to evaluate
information sources and so in an age of
digital news we’re finding ourselves
bamboozled by it as well
researchers at Duquesne University
conducted a study that assessed adult
students educational ability at
understanding information sources and
found them to be weak which they
theorized would lead to problems for
adults because many of us turn to the
internet for information why is this
important to know because fake news has
real-world consequences in May 2017
false news reports began to appear on
Facebook stating that South Sudanese
President Salva Kiir had been shot dead
then another news story appeared saying
that a militia loyal to removed army
chief were withdrawing and assembling in
a city chaos erupted in South Sudan
Digital bigotry and incitement were
accompanied by targeted killings and
rapes of members of ethnic groups a
special adviser to the United Nations
pointed out in a Slate Magazine article
that violent attacks against individuals
and communities based on political
affiliation could be linked back to
these false news reports this is not
just an isolated incident this is
happening everywhere fake news is like
wildfire and it’s spreading sometimes it
can be really hard to think of ways to
deal with problems on a global scale
when I was first approaching the idea of
this talk I remember being overwhelmed
by how big of a problem this really is
and someone told me I should try to
remember that planting seeds leads to
growth and that actions I take can
ripple outward small actions can become
large over time and it occurred to me
the same is true about how we fight fake
news we start with ourselves one thing
we need to consider is how we react to
news it can be easy and a politically
charged climate to have an immediate gut
reaction to something that we see online
after all it’s widely known that people
can be swayed by
their emotions so instead of hitting
that share button and fury agitation or
astonishment we should ask ourselves
three things first ask yourself who is
the author of the article you’re looking
at one of the easiest ways to identify
fake news is by doing research on the
author you’re looking to see what
articles they’ve written what other
publications they have and anything
about them personally well-known
journalists often have twitter feeds
regular publications and easily findable
information about themselves out there
if you can’t find anything about the
author chances are they’re not a real
person or they’re deliberately
misleading the public by providing a
fake name be skeptical of authors that
have no public information next you
should ask yourself where did this
article come from on today’s world wide
web anyone can host a publication some
publications are easily identifiable
things like the New York Times The Post
and even CNN are easily recognizable
names many articles say where they came
from
but how often have you stopped to click
through and look at the original article
for yourself go back to the original
article and take a good look at it
does it have obvious problems sometimes
we can see things immediately like
misspelled words are bad grammar even
doing a simple google search but the
article can tell you more about it you
should click on the articles and
actually make sure they work this is the
Denver Guardian in November 2016 the
website published a story about Hillary
Clinton that was widely shared by
Facebook users this is fake news
clicking anywhere but on the site
inquire and the article in question
would tell you that they were
experiencing technical issues with their
website remember the double Daisy image
earlier we can’t always believe our own
eyes so you have to do more than just
look at it poke around read the about Us
page read other articles even a simple
google search for the name of the
publication can kind of lend you more
information about the authenticity of
the article this leads us to our final
question
is this article credible what does it
mean to be credible credibility is the
quality of being trusted or believed in
and with fake news it requires a
synthesis of the first two questions who
is the author and where did the article
come from into a final answer of
trustworthiness for the entire article
this step is usually the easiest you
already know who the author is
and whether they’re credible as writers
and you know something about the
publisher so now you decide if you feel
like this is a trustworthy news source
if it is that’s great if it isn’t then
congratulations you’ve just potentially
identified a fake news story for
yourself
remember that headlines are meant to
grab your attention and to inflame your
passions in the hopes that you will read
it and maybe even share it don’t react
research ask yourself these three
questions before you blindly share an
article and contribute to the fake news
problem each article we review is one
less instance of fake news and actions
can ripple so the next time that you’re
on social media you feel the urge to
share an article ask yourself where the
article came from who wrote it and why
and we can all help stem the tide of
fake news one article at a time thank
you
[Applause]
[Music]
I’ve always been obsessed with
information when I was a kid I remember
even then being obsessed whenever my
parents or my siblings were having a
conversation eight-year-old me would
immediately start asking questions who
are you talking about why where did you
hear that
what difference does that make what
happens next it would get so annoying
that my sister would say to me are you
writing a book I wasn’t I was just
interested in information I like to know
things a few years later the internet
came along and I spent a lot of time
surfing the web reading articles
blogging and learning how to code on web
pages probably too much time to be
honest I became obsessed all over again
with the idea of instant information it
was readily available everywhere the
good the bad and the bizarre I devoured
it I dare say that people probably
thought I was becoming the Internet at
that point fast forward a few years and
that obsession with how I and others use
technology to get information led me to
my master’s program in Library and
Information science I’ve been an
information professional for several
years now and I am gloriously surrounded
by the Internet there’s a lot of news
out there on the the web and I have a
daily news ritual so the first thing I
do when I get up in the morning is I
grab a cup of coffee and I immediately
search the news either on my desktop or
my phone I see things about celebrities
now the government national disasters
and I still follow the oddities for fun
there’s a lot of news out there and it’s
gotten much much harder to tell what is
real from what is not real the constant
stream of information that were
assaulted with on a daily basis some of
it blatantly false and some of it
convincingly false makes to
understanding what real news is more
important that at any other time in
history so when I say fake news I want
to make sure you understand what I mean
fake news comes in a few varieties and I
want to be clear what I’m talking about
tabloid news like the National Enquirer
and satirical news
the onion have been around a while some
as long as 50 years tabloids host
sensational stories about celebrities
oddities and sometimes complete fiction
satirical news presents pop culture in a
comedic way and it’s often a commentary
on social issues this isn’t the kind of
fake news that dominates our discourse
these days however I’m talking about the
spreading of false information as fact
either deliberately misleading or not
that gets shared by people on the
Internet be it by retweets bloggers
Facebook posts or any of the other ways
that people share information how do we
know that this is causing a problem in a
recent study by the Stanford history
education group which looked at middle
and high school students
80% of middle school students couldn’t
tell the difference between real and
fake news high school students accepted
photographic evidence of a supposed
Fukushima radiation effect on daisies
which caused them to mutate in a way
that’s unnatural without asking any
questions about the image what evidence
in the image is there that this was
caused by nuclear radiation aside from
the posters comments can we believe what
we see is real in the age of Photoshop a
study by researchers at the University
of Warwick found that people have a poor
ability to identify when a real-world
image is original or has been
manipulated what about sponsored content
those are articles that are essentially
elaborate infomercials in the form of
news students couldn’t tell the
difference between sponsored content in
real news either according to the
Stanford history education study
this problem isn’t just affecting our
students though many adults are
struggling with the same problems many
of us were never taught how to evaluate
information sources and so in an age of
digital news we’re finding ourselves
bamboozled by it as well
researchers at Duquesne University
conducted a study that assessed adult
students educational ability at
understanding information sources and
found them to be weak which they
theorized would lead to problems for
adults because many of us turn to the
internet for information why is this
important to know because fake news has
real-world consequences in May 2017
false news reports began to appear on
Facebook stating that South Sudanese
President Salva Kiir had been shot dead
then another news story appeared saying
that a militia loyal to removed army
chief were withdrawing and assembling in
a city chaos erupted in South Sudan
Digital bigotry and incitement were
accompanied by targeted killings and
rapes of members of ethnic groups a
special adviser to the United Nations
pointed out in a Slate Magazine article
that violent attacks against individuals
and communities based on political
affiliation could be linked back to
these false news reports this is not
just an isolated incident this is
happening everywhere fake news is like
wildfire and it’s spreading sometimes it
can be really hard to think of ways to
deal with problems on a global scale
when I was first approaching the idea of
this talk I remember being overwhelmed
by how big of a problem this really is
and someone told me I should try to
remember that planting seeds leads to
growth and that actions I take can
ripple outward small actions can become
large over time and it occurred to me
the same is true about how we fight fake
news we start with ourselves one thing
we need to consider is how we react to
news it can be easy and a politically
charged climate to have an immediate gut
reaction to something that we see online
after all it’s widely known that people
can be swayed by
their emotions so instead of hitting
that share button and fury agitation or
astonishment we should ask ourselves
three things first ask yourself who is
the author of the article you’re looking
at one of the easiest ways to identify
fake news is by doing research on the
author you’re looking to see what
articles they’ve written what other
publications they have and anything
about them personally well-known
journalists often have twitter feeds
regular publications and easily findable
information about themselves out there
if you can’t find anything about the
author chances are they’re not a real
person or they’re deliberately
misleading the public by providing a
fake name be skeptical of authors that
have no public information next you
should ask yourself where did this
article come from on today’s world wide
web anyone can host a publication some
publications are easily identifiable
things like the New York Times The Post
and even CNN are easily recognizable
names many articles say where they came
from
but how often have you stopped to click
through and look at the original article
for yourself go back to the original
article and take a good look at it
does it have obvious problems sometimes
we can see things immediately like
misspelled words are bad grammar even
doing a simple google search but the
article can tell you more about it you
should click on the articles and
actually make sure they work this is the
Denver Guardian in November 2016 the
website published a story about Hillary
Clinton that was widely shared by
Facebook users this is fake news
clicking anywhere but on the site
inquire and the article in question
would tell you that they were
experiencing technical issues with their
website remember the double Daisy image
earlier we can’t always believe our own
eyes so you have to do more than just
look at it poke around read the about Us
page read other articles even a simple
google search for the name of the
publication can kind of lend you more
information about the authenticity of
the article this leads us to our final
question
is this article credible what does it
mean to be credible credibility is the
quality of being trusted or believed in
and with fake news it requires a
synthesis of the first two questions who
is the author and where did the article
come from into a final answer of
trustworthiness for the entire article
this step is usually the easiest you
already know who the author is
and whether they’re credible as writers
and you know something about the
publisher so now you decide if you feel
like this is a trustworthy news source
if it is that’s great if it isn’t then
congratulations you’ve just potentially
identified a fake news story for
yourself
remember that headlines are meant to
grab your attention and to inflame your
passions in the hopes that you will read
it and maybe even share it don’t react
research ask yourself these three
questions before you blindly share an
article and contribute to the fake news
problem each article we review is one
less instance of fake news and actions
can ripple so the next time that you’re
on social media you feel the urge to
share an article ask yourself where the
article came from who wrote it and why
and we can all help stem the tide of
fake news one article at a time thank
you
[Applause]
[Music]
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