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Fake News &Skewed Views

WHAT’S THE POINT?

To understand what fake news is

To know how to spot fake news

“Doctors Find Four Bees Living In Woman’s

Eye And Drinking Her Tears”

In April, a Taiwanese

woman was found by

doctors to have four

small sweat bees living

inside her eye.

The 28-year-old woman was

pulling out weeds when

the insects flew into her

eyes.

“Muslims Celebrated as Notre Dame Burns”Fake footage of people

shouting ‘Allahu Akbah’

(God is great) whilst

Notre Dame burned in

April was found to be a

fake overlay of sound

taken from a different

video.

This image is also

photoshopped.

“Duck-eating Piranhas Found in Yorkshire

Lake”

The bodies of two

piranhas were found in a

fishing lake in Yorkshire

earlier this year.

It’s thought that they

may have been pets who

were set free in the

lake.

“Ancient Mayan Batman Armour Discovered” Whilst this image was

circulating social media

in June this year as an

example of an Ancient

Mayan sculpture, it is

actually a piece of

artwork created in 2014

for the Mexican Museum of

Design.

“Illegal Immigrants Overwhelm British

Beach”

This photograph has been

reused across the

internet many times in

fake reports about

immigration numbers in

many different countries.

However it actually shows

a groups of migrants

arriving in Spain in

2017.

Their legal status is

unknown, as refugees are

legally allowed

protection from the

country they enter.

“Alabama Mayor calls for LGBTQ People to

be Killed”

In May 2019, the Mayor of

Carbon Hill, Alabama

posted on Facebook about

“killing them out” in

reference to a post about

the LGBTQ community.

The post was deleted but

not before a news

station took screenshots

of Chambers’ comments,

which prompted him to

issue an apology.

The National Literacy Trust asked over 2,000

8-16 year olds to identify which stories from

a group of six were real and which were fake.

Only 2% got correct answers across the board.

Fake News and Critical Literacy, National Literacy Trust, 2017

WHAT IS

?

Satire or Parody

Joke news that is

meant to make fun of

the media or people.

It is not meant to

be believed or taken

seriously.

Misrepresentation

Stories that have some truth but are not

totally accurate, because of human error

or bias.

This could be a news story that has no

evidence, or an article that has used a

real photo but in a different context to

the original image.

Disinformation

Totally made up news

that someone has

created to make

money, cause

confusion or

manipulate people.

Purposefully trying to

trick people

Not trying to trick

anyone

BBC One/BBC

Two

Facebook ITV YouTube Instagram

87%

1

.(and regional

variations)

2

.

3

.

4

.

5

.

38%

85%41%

43%

Ofcom Kids News Consumption Survey 2018

DO YOU

THINK THE

NEWS IS

TRUSTWORTHY

?

Write down the key signs that show this article is fake news?

Source

• Have you heard of the website?

• Google it to see if it is a

genuine news site.

• Check the URL to see if it’s a

secure site (it should have

https:// in front of it). This

isn’t a guarantee

• The website ‘Whois’ tells you

who owns the domain name and

how long it’s been registered

for

Headline

• Check for exaggeration or

emotionally manipulative

‘clickbait’.

• Is there an excessive use of all

caps or exclamation marks?

• Copy and paste the headline into

Google’s ‘News’ section to see if

anyone else is covering the

story.

• Adjectives create bias – look at

how they’re used

Images

• Use reverse image search to

check if the photo is a stock

image or even an old photo

from a different story. It’s

ok for legitimate news sites

to use stock images, but it’s

worth checking.

• Check for signs of editing or

manipulation – such as fuzzier

sections of the image, warped

areas or distorted edges to

people/objects.

Evidence

• Is it using data without

referencing its source?

• Are the experts being

quoted actual people?

• Use fullfact.org to check

whether the claims are

likely to be true.

Date & Byline

• Every legitimate news story

should have a date, and the

name of the person who wrote

it.

• Check the date is relevant

and recent.

• Most journalists are on

Twitter so search for their

profile if you’re not sure

they’re legit.

Spelling & Grammar

• Not all fake news will

have mistakes (and some

legitimate news stories

will) but it is always

worth checking.

• If there are lots of

mistakes it indicates that

the story might not have

been proof-read by an

editor.

Spelling & Grammar

• Not all fake news will

have mistakes (and some

legitimate news stories

will) but it is always

worth checking.

• If there are lots of

mistakes it indicates that

the story might not have

been proof-read by an

editor.

1. What is the

‘annoying brain

glitch’ that makes

us jump to faulty

conclusions?

a) Cognitive bias

b) Imitation bias

2. What is the

orbitofrontol

cortex responsible

for?

3. How does dopamine

make us feel?

a) Really good

b) Really unhappy

Fake News isn’t always easy to

spot because when we agree with

it:

It appeals to our emotions

instead of logic

It triggers the release of

dopamine as a reward

1.

2.

This has the largest impact on minority groups who

have less people in their ‘tribe’ to stick up for

them.

Can you think of any examples of this?

1. What is fake news?

2. How can they spot it?

Share your Fake News Guide with

someone in your family.

Who do you think would most

benefit from learning about how

to spot Fake News and why?

1. Fake News is untrue or misleading news which

is presented as if it’s factually accurate

2. We can spot it by analysing it for key clues

– such as photo editing and unreliable

sources.

3. Fake News can make us tribal – so when we

share anything, we need to check our biases

first.

visit DitchtheLabel.org

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.