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How to Think in the Information Age
Finding Facts in a Post-Truth World
.com/cmairn
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Agenda• discover what misinformation is and explore ways to combat it.• learn to recognize misleading news, statistics, graphs, infographics,
and more.• understand basic fallacies and how to detect bias.• appreciate how fast information spreads on social media and gather
tools to help you become a stronger digital citizen.• utilize the scientific method to become a critical thinker in the
Information Age.
“The information of the people at large can alone make them safe as they are the sole depository of our political and religious freedom.”
Thomas Jefferson
Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in
shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.
POST-
Alternative Facts
Source: Tampa Bay Times, January 23, 2017, https://goo.gl/mn15sy
Image source: https://goo.gl/tlyh6J
How to Spot a Liar, https://goo.gl/KkQamL
“A lie has no power whatsoever by its mere utterance; its power emerges when someone else agrees to believe the lie.”
Pamela Meyer
Without good, unbiased information, no one has the right tools to make up his or her own mind about things
that matter! Ask a Librarian!!
Source: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill
Learn to recognize misleading news, statistics, graphs,
infographics, etc.
Plausibility Check
In the 35 years since marijuana laws stopped being enforced in California, the number of marijuana smokers has doubled every year.
Source: Levitin, p4
Death Valley’s average annual temperature is 77 degrees.
Correlation does not imply causation.
Source: https://goo.gl/uMjiyK
Find more at: www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations
Infographics
Source: Levitin, p.52
A fake news article posted by Beqa Latsabidze, a Georgian computer science student.
Source: https://goo.gl/GLFvhm
Google and Facebook Take Aim at Fake News Sites
Source: https://goo.gl/R8IEwZ
1.
3. More about this later …
2.
Video: https://youtu.be/ttGUiwfTYvg
Nothing is real: How German scientists control person’s face
International Fact-Checking Network fact-checkers’
code of principles1. A COMMITMENT TO NONPARTISANSHIP AND FAIRNESS2. A COMMITMENT TO TRANSPARENCY OF SOURCES3. A COMMITMENT TO TRANSPARENCY OF FUNDING & ORGANIZATION4. A COMMITMENT TO TRANSPARENCY OF METHODOLOGY5. A COMMITMENT TO OPEN AND HONEST CORRECTIONS
Read more at: http://www.poynter.org/fact-checkers-code-of-principles/
Source: https://goo.gl/gCziII
Note to Breitbart: Earth Is Not Cooling, Climate Change Is Real and Please Stop Using Our Video to Mislead Americans
B.S. Detector searches all links on a given webpage for references to unreliable sources, checking against a manually compiled list of domains. It then provides visual warnings about
the presence of questionable links or the browsing of questionable websites:
http://bsdetector.tech/
Reporting fake news on
Facebook!
Assignment idea!
List of fake news websites: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fake_news_websites
List of satirical news websites: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_satirical_news_websites
Understand basic fallacies and how to
detect bias.
Basic Fallacies
Source: owl.english.purdue.edu
• Slippery Slope - a conclusion based on the premise that if A happens, then eventually through a series of small steps through B, C,..., X, Y, that Z will happen too.
• Hasty Generalization - a conclusion based on insufficient or biased evidence.
• Post hoc ergo propter hoc - a conclusion that assumes that if A occurred after B then B must have caused A.
• Genetic Fallacy - conclusion is based on an argument that the origins of a person, idea, institute, or theory determine its character, nature, or worth.
• Begging the Claim – the conclusion that the writer should prove is validated within the claim.
• Circular Argument - restates the argument rather than actually proving it.
Basic Fallacies• Either/or - conclusion that oversimplifies the argument by reducing it to only two sides or choices.
• Ad hominem - an attack on the character of a person rather than his or her opinions or arguments.
• Ad populum - an emotional appeal that speaks to positive (such as patriotism, religion, democracy) or negative (such as terrorism or fascism) concepts rather than the real issue at hand.
• Red Herring - a diversionary tactic that avoids the key issues, often by avoiding opposing arguments rather than addressing them.
• Straw Man - oversimplifies an opponent's viewpoint and then attacks that hollow argument.
• Moral Equivalence - compares minor misdeeds with major atrocities.
Source: owl.english.purdue.edu
Questions to ask to help detect bias• Who are the sources?• Is there a lack of diversity?• From whose point of view is the news reported?• Are there double standards?• Do stereotypes skew the coverage?• What are the unchallenged assumptions?• Is the language loaded?• Is there a lack of context?• Do the headlines and stories match?
Source: https://goo.gl/6wKdHa
News Literacy Toolkit: http://libguides.westga.edu/newsliteracy
Using the Scientific Method to become a critical thinker in the
Information Age.
Scientific Method
Information fluency is the intersection of information literacy, computer literacy and critical thinking.
An information literate individual …
Source: http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency
Determines the extent of information needed.
Accesses the needed information effectively and efficiently.
Evaluates information and its sources critically.
Incorporates selected information into one’s knowledge base.
Uses information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose.
Understands the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally.
A computer literate individual …
Source: https://goo.gl/fmjU1
Develops some technological skills while practicing the fine art of being “information literate”, but “computer literacy” is primarily rote learning of software and hardware. This is NOT a static skill, however.
“Fluency with technology" focuses on understanding the underlying concepts of technology and applying problem-solving and critical thinking to using technology.
Critical Thinking defined by St. Petersburg College
The active and systemic process of communication, problem solving, evaluation, analysis, synthesis, and reflection, both individually and in community, to foster understanding, support sound decision-making, and guide action.
So, I think information fluency is …
… having the ability to think critically while being able to apply this thinking across a variety of “literacies” (e.g., information, technological, cultural, scientific etc.) in order to “foster understanding, support sound decision-making, and guide action” in the classroom and beyond!
communicating, problem solving, evaluating, analyzing, synthesizing, and reflecting on
the entire process.
What about Transliteracy?
Source: http://goo.gl/WUwbn
The ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from
signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks.
Deduction and Induction
Bayesian Reasoning
Source: https://goo.gl/FV8N4M
Belief perseverance is the tendency to cling to one’s initial belief even after receiving
new information that contradicts or dis-confirms the basis of that belief.
Save the “best” fallacy for last …
2 + 2 = 5
Image source: https://goo.gl/9EvAYL
“Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government; whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their attention, they may be relied on to set them to rights.”
Thomas Jefferson
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