Alternative Facts, Fake

Alternative Facts, FakeNicole Branch,

Trish Serviss&Elizabeth McKeigueConfirmation Bias, & the Post-Truth WorldImage courtesy of Flickr user Dennis Skley

Introduce ourselves.1

Session GoalsDiscuss pedagogical approaches in the age of fake newsExplore strategies that enhance critical engagement with informationEngage with activities that encourage critical thinking

So here are our goals for todays session:

First, well talk about and discuss some timely approaches to teaching students in our post-truth world where fake news has become so ubiquitous

Nicole and Trish will talk about specific strategies that they are using in an ENGL 1H writing class to enhance students abilities to evaluate information, to think critically about the authority of sources, and challenging information bubbles created by social media.

Well have you participate in the same interactive exercises used with those students that are designed to enhance their critical engagement with information and sources.

And well have plenty of time for discussion.

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Fake News & Media Mistrust

In higher ed, we know that the proliferation of fake news, as well as the growing distrust by many Americans of the mainstream media are reminding us of the importance of the need to educate students by developing strong critical thinking and information literacy skills.

Even prior to election day in 2016, Gallup reported in September of last year that Americans' trust in the mass media "to report the news fully, accurately and fairly" has dropped to its lowest level in Gallup polling history.

In fact, Gallup has been tracking that trust in the media has been declining for years.

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Fake News & Alternative Facts

And none of us were terribly surprised when a recent Stanford study found that most students from middle school through college dont know when news is fake and have trouble knowing how to determine fact from fiction.

Its not easy for adults either.

In a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in December 2016, a majority of americans said that fake news has caused a great deal of confusion for them about the basic facts of current events.

For our students, the importance of information literacy learning outcomes that emphasize critical thinking and evaluation of research sources is more important than ever.

How do we talk to students about authority of sources in this era of information and misinformation overload?

How do we enhance the way we teach them to think critically in order to separate facts from alternative facts?

How does this change how we approach the teaching of information literacy and critical thinking?

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Critical Thinking & Information LiteracyNew lesson plans with focus on critical thinkingSpecific discussions about filter bubbles, confirmation biasLess time on mechanics of finding, more on evaluation of sourcesIn the context of new ACRL Framework for Information Literacy

In the context of our cultural and political climate, librarians and faculty here at Santa Clara are collaborating to develop new information literacy lesson plans that especially emphasize critical thinking and evaluation of research sources, in addition to our traditional focus on teaching students how to locate, select, and appropriately use and cite evidence in their research and writing. (CTW 2 SLO 2.3)

The activities to achieve these outcomes specifically focus on the discussion of concepts such as filter bubbles and confirmation bias.

We are seeing the need for our teaching to focus less on the mechanics of finding sourcesand more on understanding and evaluating sources.

To provide a framework for determining student learning outcomes, the Association of College and Research Libraries has recently established a new Information Literacy Framework for Higher Education, the first revision to the ACRLs standards for information literacy in over 15 years.

The new framework recognizes that information literacy is too nuanced and complex to be thought of as simply a prescriptive enumeration of skills outlined in the standards.

Also, the framework moves away from the antiquated idea that information resources can neatly divide into binary categories of good if you use a library database and bad if you found it through google or wikipedia.

The framework includes a set of six core interconnected concepts, also known as threshold concepts...

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Framework for Information LiteracySearching as Strategic ExplorationResearch as InquiryInformation Creation as a Process Information Has ValueScholarship as ConversationAuthority Is Constructed and Contextual

The six concepts are less of a checklist of standards that must be met, but rather a set of ideas that promote conceptual understanding of the information and research environment.

One of the frameworks six concepts is titled Authority Is Constructed and Contextual.

It calls for librarians and instructors to approach the notions of authority and credibility as dependent on the context in which the information is used rather than as absolutes.

Using that frame, librarians and faculty are designing library instruction sessions in which the primary student learning outcomes focus less on how to use a database but rather focus on outcomes that promote the understanding that authority of information depends on the source and the context in which its used.

To talk more about how these concepts are being used in library workshops to specifically address the problems students face in confronting fake news and alternative facts.Nicole...

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Library Workshops

Elizabeth turns over to Nicole & Trish7

Library WorkshopsInterest from facultyLibrarians met to discuss approachesOakland Public Library workshopTwo workshops in ENGL 1HFilter BubblesFake News, Alternative Facts & Confirmation Bias

Nicole & Trish: Brief history of how this developed and our approach. We will be focusing on the Fake news workshop as an example of how we approached this topic & some of the considerations/observations we have after doing this.8

ENGL 1H GoalsDefine and recognize fake news, media bias, and editorial perspective

Engage with tools to be more self-reflective and critical media consumers

Reflect on the role of diverse media and high-quality journalism in a healthy democracy (and academic life)

Trish?: Our goals for the Fake News Workshop for students. Wanted to address fake news and also expand the conversation to the various ways that misinformation and bias plays are role in the media, as well as enforcing the role of high quality journalism and journalistic standards in our world.9

Setting the tone

Image courtesy of Flickr user Alex Schlotzer

Audio clip from Fresh Air interview with Jeffrey Rosen

Nicole: Play the clip and explain the role of this in setting the tone. Our task for the day was to practice analysis and learn skills to analyze news media, not to judge political view point. Though we would be talking about information in partisan terms, this is an issue of concern for all sides of the political spectrum.10

Is it real or is it fake?

Image courtesy of Flickr user Ryan.Berry

Nicole: Example fake news article. Briefly explain the article. 11

Deepening Analysis of Media Consumption

Nicole: Then moved beyond fake to look at sources based on two characteristics: partisan bias and journalistic qualities.12

Defining Terms: Complicating Fake NewsFake newsIntentionally false news pieces

Media biasUnacknowledged bias or prejudice in a news report

Editorial perspectiveAcknowledged viewpoint or slant of the author or publication

Nicole: Importance of defining terms to give context and a common understanding of different elements we might encounter in analyzing media. Also helps us move away from the bianeries of fake and real news as well as complicating the cooptation of fake news as a stand-in for news we dont like13

Complex/ AnalyticalMeets High StandardsSensational or ClickbaitLeftLiberalConservativeRightJournalistic QualityPartisan Bias

Nicole: Nicole: Importance of defining terms to give context and a common understanding of different elements we might encounter in analyzing media. Also helps us move away from the bianeries of fake and real news as well as complicating the cooptation of fake news as a stand-in for news we dont like. This is the framework we used, based on a similar model developed by [Name]. There could be many ways to conceive this, but we felt this was a useful framework. 14

Our media consumptionBrainstorm media sources

Include any you know about (like/dislike)

One media source per sticky note

Trish & Nicole: Try the exercise the students did. Hand out sticky notes and explain the exercise. Afterward, briefly reflect on the outcome and highlight things that come up that are useful to emphasize with students (do we as group tend to know more about sources on one side or another?; its great we have so many sources; sources may fall in one more than one category depending on which journalist we associate with the source, etc.)15

Student Responses

Trish & Nicole: Try the exercise the students did. Hand out sticky notes and explain the exercise. Afterward, briefly reflect on the outcome and highlight things that come up that are useful to emphasize with students (do we as group tend to know more about sources on one side or another?; its great we have so many sources; sources may fall in one more than one category depending on which journalist we associate with the source, etc.)16

Vanessa Oteros Take

Briefly share the original. Vanessa Otero. http://www.allgeneralizationsarefalse.com/?p=53 These are my subjective opinions based on having read many news stories from each of the listed sites. The only credibility or authority I can claim in this regard is that I read and write analytically for a living. Patent Attorney 17

Connecting to the CurriculumEvaluation criteria

Specific articles to analyze related to a course topic

Read & discuss in groups

Present

Nicole: Hand out evaluation criteria & briefly share second activity. Students worked in groups of four to analyze two news sources and then presented those sources.18

Turning Point USA (TPUSA)Selection of Articles with different levels of bias and journalistic quality:

TPUSA & Charlie KirkTPUSA & SCUFree speech & Milo Faculty Watchlist

Trish: Give brief explanation of TPUSA. The topic was TPUSA (why we picked it) and articles fell in four areas related to this topic.19

Reflections & ObservationsSetting (and maintaining) the toneFact AND bias exist at the same timeAdaptability to other topics & disciplinesScaffoldingCulling student interestRaised awareness of their own analysis strategiesTakes time

Nicole, Elizabeth & Trish: Things we noticed. (Trish do you have anything to share having been with the class afterward?); collaboration; immediacy of topic; integration of information literacy, writing,and content. Issues this can be tied to: Peer review and journalistic standardsBlogs and increased voice for the unheard Editorial/opinion versus reportingImperfection of all sourcesAnd yet there are truthsYour own authorshipTools & resources

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DiscussionHow does this issue show up in your field of study or with your students?

What have you done or might you be interested in trying related to this topic in the classroom?

Other questions?

Trish, Nicole, Elizabeth: Faculty discussion some questions we might consider....21

Nicole Branch, Trish Serviss&Elizabeth McKeigueCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Curriculum created by Amy Sonnie, Emily Weak, Kathleen DiGiovanni and Christine Ianieri, Oakland Public Library.