'Colleges Turn Fake News' Epidemic Into A Teachable Moment

During times of tragedies and immense events, we like to be comforted with information that makes sense to us. “Confirmation bias is the idea that we’re more likely to consume and share information that fits with our already-held beliefs”(Willingham 2). Sometimes during a time a tragedy, we cling onto what we find is comfortable. With confirmation bias, the fake news that is served directly to us is what we think fits our prior knowledge. In order to neglect confirmation bias, we need to confront the real situation and not believe what seems plausible(Willingham 2). If you see a shark swimming through streets flooded with water after a hurricane, are you going to believe it?(Willingham 2). Even though people are ranting about how awful the

Social media news and magazines are brainwashing students: many people would say this actual worldwide effect on todays' society! Especially, author Camila Domonoske would agree, who published, “ Students Have 'Dismaying' Inability To Tell Fake News From Real, Study Finds” she argues and illustrates there is a “

According to Dr. Gerald Nosich, an expert in critical thinking and author of the book: Learning to Think Things Through: A Guide to Critical Thinking across the Curriculum, “Many aspects of the world we live in can be impediments to learning to think more critically” (17). Nosich addresses that

The last and final difficult conversation was a constructive and mind opening experience on the premise of watching and receiving news. During this conversation, my group watched 20 minutes of both MSNBC and Fox News and from there we collectively discussed it. Our first showing was watching Fox News and

People automatically assume that a news organization’s bias is strictly a bad thing, while this does seem like a bad thing, the bias is negated by the sheer quantity of news sites that you can easily visit, this may take some additional time, but it doesn’t have to take a long time, while you’re stuck in traffic you can just pull out your smartphone and look at some news sites. If you find that one site has too much of a bias that doesn’t mean that you should just ignore that site completely, instead you should look for the same news story on a different site that has a different perspective, instead of just looking at the media from one point of view, look at both the left and right point of view. This bias allows for a look into how both sides see an argument, while one side may see something as a good thing, another side may see it as a bad thing. This allows you to get into the mind of the news stations and their reporters. While you're watching the news always maintain a level of skepticism about what the news station is saying. Skepticism is key to watching the news in any environment, without any level of skepticism you quickly become a mindless zombies that just believe something because it was said on Fox NEWS or MSNBC. You should take into account all the things said by the different news stations in order to formulate

On September 10th, Katie Sanders from PunditFact and former writer from Politifact Florida gave a speech at the Bob Graham Center titled Pants on Fire: Misinformation in American Politics. The talk and subsequent Q&A centered on the perpetuation of misinformation that is experienced in contemporary American politics as well as

Whom should we listen to? The best person to listen to is the actual source, to hear the information from the individual at hand and if it’s not a person and it’s a specific topic to gather information about the subject yourself. Majority of those who have been taught to understand what are reliable sources and what unreliable understand where to get information if needed. The issue is that people are disregarding the proper way of getting reliable and factual information. People rather just be lazy and have someone tell it to them ten to dig a lot deeper to gather the information that they need to form their own thoughts and opinions about anything. There is a newspaper about fake news from Jeff Parsons and the Researchers at the University of Cambridge speaking about an experiment to preemptively fake news so that they can rid people of any misinformation (Parsons, How to stop fake news).. The experiment involved 2,000 U.S. residents. Dr. Sander Van Der Linden, the lead author of the study explained, “The idea is to provide a cognitive repertoire that helps build up resistance to misinformation, so the next time people come across it they are less susceptible (Parsons, How to stop fake news).” This was a great experiment and a very necessary experiment because of the fake news and the impact it has in our society we need to figure out to stop it and to also make sure that we are

“Information Literacy: It’s Become a Priority in an Era of Fake News” written by Shannon Najmabadi’s states how critical it is today to be able recognize the truth as lies have become a widespread as they are featured in many sources. Shannon recognizing this predicament is supported by a report by the Stanford University presenting the nerving truth that students are unable to find credible resources. Shannon therefor defines information literacy as the ability to find, evaluate, and use information as an important technique that needs more focus so people know how to gather honest sources. In support of Shannon she uses the lack of information literacy being taught, the change trying to be made, and her call for action as her hope for others

There are many ways to find your own truth in journalism. An example of how to find out the truth is to come up with your own conclusion after gathering information from multiple news stations. Another way to find out the truth is to use the SMELL test. The SMELL test is a test which makes you ask the question, “Why are they telling me this?”, “Where’s the evidence?”, “Does it logically make sense based on the facts?”, and “What’s missing in the provided information?”. Many people who are aware of the bias in the media will use many ways to come up with their own conclusion as to what the actual truth

Truth in Journalism It is unfortunate that society is forced to live in a world where media bias exists but it is possible to find truth in journalism. Media sources are bias but generally swing either right or left on the political spectrum. Although there are different news sources with political opinions, most news sources are liberal making it harder to find a conservative point of view. Though it can be difficult, this difference in perspective makes it possible for an individual to infer and formulate their own opinion on an issue or current event. Getting a broad picture of an important event is usually impossible if the viewer only looks to one news source to get all the information needed. Looking to multiple news sources is a crucially important tool when seeking the truth in journalism in relatively bias media. In the article “Won’t get fooled again” by John McManus he writes “On broadcast networks, cable and the web, Americans can now construct their own news diets for the first time. Drawing on parallel but polarized universes of news and views…”. McManus is explaining that now more than ever

Denzel Washington, a critically acclaimed actor, had recently and famously stated, “If you don’t read the newspaper then you’re uninformed. If you do read it, then you’re misinformed.” The quote had derived from the recent incident including fake news about Denzel Washington endorsing Donald Trump. Bringing to light the idea of fake, manipulated, or biased information, it’s clear to see Denzel is not the only victim of such actions. Similarly, most

Christiane Amanpour aimed to inform the audience about the state of journalism due to fake news and persuade the viewers to dig for and focus on the truth in the information they find. The Tedtalk’s audience were journalist and those who consume information, because it provides advice for current journalists. It, also, speaks to those who consume information, because Amanpour describes sifting through information and hearing both sides. Amanpour’s Tedtalk is relevant to academic composition because writers must find sources that are reliable and objective enough to support their argument without adding bias to the essay. Also, as consumers of information, our goal should be to find the truth in every piece of information we read. We need to

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.06.025 From personal experience working as a library professional in my local library, libraries make it a responsibility to not only provide their patrons with information--they improve the information literacy of their communities--Information literacy empowers the user to use discernment in their research in order to question the validity of the resources--because human beings live in an age with such rapid advancement due to the speed of information on the internet, fake news can take us for a ride. According to Rick Mercer (2017), “half the information is false and not just false it is intentionally false designed to confuse us fake news” (para. 3). Information seekers are susceptible and vulnerable to the constant bombardment of data, however, just like with varying food choices, the user possesses the ability to decide where they choose their knowledge

The recent surge in popularity of social media comes with a price: fake news. Fake news is defined as news or media that has been altered or modified. Journalists have begun to analyze why that fake news exists and why it continues exist. Two authors, Eoin O’Carroll and Kevin D. Williamson, both have written articles about fake news. Eoin O’Carroll’s article “How Information Overload Helps Spread Fake News,” discusses how the media has bombarded us with news stories, blurring the distinct lines between real and fake news. Kevin D. Williamson, a journalist for the National Review, writes in his article “‘Fake News, Media and Voters: Shared Reality Must Be Acknowledged” that the news is not fake; it just does not align with one’s personal beliefs. Both authors successfully appeal to their audiences’ emotions and feelings, but O’Carroll is more likely to succeed than Williamson in persuading his audience to try and combat fake news because the writer presents himself as someone the intended readers will more readily identify with and offers evidence that his readers will find more compelling.

Media today is faulty and brainwashes students. A study found that, “If the children are the future, the future might be very ill-informed” (Domonoske). Domonoske claims that the news feeds untrue and biased information to students; these students of today’s society will grow up to be the future. It is imperative that students receive true and reputable information from the media. If they are not now, well informed, then a society filled with uneducated individuals will reside. Malinformation generates arguments that can become more serious and turn into a much bigger problem. To avoid this, highly intellectual people must attempt to find a way for students to be well informed. Researches have taken the time to study the influence media has on students. In a recent study, “Stanford researchers that evaluated students’ ability to assess information sources and described the results as “dismaying,” “bleak” and “[a] threat to democracy” (Domonoske). The study proved that students do not know how to determine fake from real information. If there is no way for students to receive true and unbiased information from news sources then they should develop the skills to assess any material presented to them. Today, they do not possess the ability to single out untrue and opinionated statements. They are