Fake News, Information Literacy, and Rhetorical ReadingMary Lamb notices a problem in ELA classrooms: often reading mostly literature, students can begin to assume that all texts are "stories." Not having enough exposure to a range of genres and practice at differentiating between them, students can miss the critical component of "constructedness" of nonfiction texts--the HOW of a text, the choices the writer has made to deliver their purpose and persuade their audiences. Lamb writes, "Growing up in this digital age, students have a tenuous grasp on the differences between fiction and nonfiction, which can result in a lack of critical thinking about important political and cultural issues" (43)
Lamb anticipates a very recent concern among ELA teachers--the problem of fake news. This issue, not a new one but certainly one which has gotten much attention recently, makes understanding who is writing, where their writing appears, context, language choices, purpose, evidence, credibility/ethos etc. evermore critically important. This article in NPR, "The Classroom where Fake News Fails," relays how one high school is working on information and news literacy skills. Have a read over it and comment: why is are these skills important? How do we best build them in our students? What resources or alliances do we need? Or, you might look for another resource that shares how educators are incorporating news literacy skills in their classrooms. Share the source in the comments and tell us what you see as the merits/usefulness of the approach.
6 Comments
Jenna Sheeran
2/7/2017 08:45:46 am
This article is a good extension from Mary Lamb's discussion of how non-fiction (primarily news non-fiction) is largely mishandled in schools, or not handled at all. In addition to the massive amount of "news" that is available in traditional formats as well as on social media, there are also "fake news" formats that are designed for comedic effect. These sources show the extent to which students are not being taught to be critical readers, because many are mistaking this "fake news" for the real thing. This is troubling for obvious reasons. Not only does this create a population that is misinformed, but such information can actually be dangerous, which is exhibited by the shooting that occurred as a result of someone mistaking fake news for real news. This lack of critical reading also undermines the entire concept of an informed public participating in a democracy. Without teaching students to read critically, they are equally as likely to take blatant propaganda as fact as they are an accurate news story. To rectify this, I think that students need to be exposed to several sources of "news" and be asked to examine and fact-check these sources. Asking students to decide for themselves whether something is accurate or not, rather than telling them what is and what isn't will produce a body of students that has a more informed and critical approach to any news literature they come upon. This is also not a task that would require a copious amount of additional school resources. Access to newspaper clipping, print-outs from social media, or even just in-school access to the internet would provide enough examples of news texts for students to complete such exercises.
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Alyson Driscoll
2/8/2017 10:04:10 am
In the wake of the recent Presidential Election, I feel as though the prevalence of fake news sources is an increasingly important issue. I personally have stumbled upon several articles on on my own Facebook feed that are completely false and published from a clearly illegitimate source, yet people will still share them without a second thought. Teaching our students to be aware of the fact that there are untrustworthy news sources will help them to go about their quests for information with a more critical lens. We must teach them to continuously question the information that is given to them. Creating specific lessons in which we help students learn to decipher fact from fiction is something I had not previously thought of, but I think it is a great way to make a direct impact on the fake news epidemic.
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Emily Etheridge
2/14/2017 05:56:55 am
Honestly I can see, and have struggled with this problem. I didn't learn all about bias and fact checking until I started studying journalism for my major. Understanding the definition of 'news' is difficult and I have literally had to read chapters, and chapters of intellects trying to form a clear definition. The most common based issues are bias though. Honestly in this day and age, with the access that citizens have to the public, anyone can be a 'journalist' but that doesn't make them a good journalist. Just because someone has a blog, or a privately run 'news' website doesn't make them reliable and that is where people get confused. News is so easily distorted by bias and self interest. It's easy, even with experience and training, to only present facts that back up one perspective. If students are trained to notice these things, it would help filter out bad news from good news as well has force people to think more critically.
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Dr. Rule
2/17/2017 09:58:51 am
Here is another article from NPR, with specific strategies.
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Abbi Griffin
3/8/2017 11:35:47 am
I've come back to this specific article in the blog because the teacher I have been substitute teaching for today has created an entire project around "fake news." There's an article on the front table about fake news, sheets detailing which news sources are conservative, liberal, and reliable, and actual articles that showcase fake news. He had his students choose three current events and find a news source on that event from each side of the spectrum-- conservative and liberal-- as well as one in the middle. This is an important assignment because without instruction on how to determine whether news is real or not, how do we know that students can differentiate? It's like Audrey Church says in the article, that it is like teaching kids to drive in a church parking lot and then sending them to the interstate. However, in just a single class period we can give students the tools that they need to not only inform themselves, but also form their own opinions based off of the facts and opinions that they read. It is definitely frustrating to get on Facebook and see an aunt or a friend posting an article without even clicking on it, and just using the title as a way to prove their point. So, why don't we teach our students to know the difference?
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Derrick Chariker
4/19/2017 08:37:51 pm
A quote by, from another NPR article, University of California, Berkeley, professor George Lakoff I enjoy is, "A fake does not have the primary function, but is intended to deceive you into thinking that it does have that function, and hence to serve the secondary function. A fake gun won't shoot, but if you are deceived into thinking it is real, it can intimidate you." The article can be found here: http://www.npr.org/2017/02/17/515630467/with-fake-news-trump-moves-from-alternative-facts-to-alternative-language
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Dr.Hannah Rule | [email protected] | Humanities Office Building 203 | University of South Carolina |