Helping Kids and Teens Tell the Truth in a Time of Alternative Facts

Marcus A. Banks

@marcusabanks

CLA Youth Services Institute, 5-5-17

Brief Biography

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What I Promised

Talk Description: “In this interactive keynote session, Marcus Banks will discuss hallmarks of legitimate news sources as well as common techniques used to distort what has actually occurred in the world. He will describe the difference between honest differences of opinion and dishonest evasions of fact. Based on this framework, Banks and audience members will develop creative solutions for imparting these concepts to youth in a compelling and interesting way. By the end of the session attendees will have at least one idea or method that they can use in their home libraries.”

Agenda

Ways of Understanding the World Will Always Conflict • Philosophical Differences Are Real and Valid • Comment is Free, But Facts Are Sacred ---- Fake News: A Way to Claim Power by Falsely Declaring Reality • Fake News Is Old News • How to Spot Fake News • Gradations of Fakeness • Who Decides What is Fake? • Why Fake News Works (Even on Librarians) ---- How Youth Services Librarians can Challenge Fake News • Countering Fake News Requires More than Facts and Lists and Tips and Tricks • Young Children: Encouraging Them to Tell the Truth • Middle School Children: Contests to Distinguish News Reports from Ads • High School Children: Training Them to Become Journalists

WAYS OF UNDERSTANDING THE WORLD WILL ALWAYS CONFLICT

PHILOSOPHICAL DIFFERENCES ARE REAL AND VALID

COMMENT IS FREE, BUT FACTS ARE SACRED

D. Robert Worley, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/d-robert-worley/conservatives-progressives_b_1879200.html 7

Wayne Besen, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wayne-besen/in-defense-of-liberalism_b_116941.html 8

“Comment is free, but facts are sacred”

“A newspaper is of necessity something of a monopoly, and its

first duty is to shun the temptations of monopoly. Its primary

office is the gathering of news. At the peril of its soul it must see

that the supply is not tainted. Neither in what it gives, nor in

what it does not give, nor in the mode of presentation must the

unclouded face of truth suffer wrong. Comment is free, but facts

are sacred. ‘Propaganda,’ so called, by this means is hateful. The

voice of opponents no less than that of friends has a right to be

heard. Comment also is justly subject to a self-imposed restraint.

It is well to be frank; it is even better to be fair.”

– C.P. Scott, The Guardian, 1921.

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Source: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2002/nov/29/1

FAKE NEWS: A WAY TO CLAIM POWER BY FALSELY DECLARING REALITY

GRADATIONS OF “FAKENESS”

FAKE NEWS IS OLD NEWS

HOW TO SPOT FAKE NEWS

WHO DECIDES?

HOW FAKE NEWS WORKS (EVEN ON LIBRARIANS)

Gradations of “Fakeness”

More Noble

Less Noble

Human Motivation

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Gradations of “Fakeness”

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Overstatement

Mis-statement

Lies

Gradations of “Fakeness”

• Pure fake news: completely fabricated stories

• Hoax sites

• Satirical sites (“The Onion”)

• Digitally altered/edited images

Caveat: Even organizations seeking to tell the truth will get things wrong.

http://blogs.slj.com/neverendingsearch/2016/11/26/truth-truthiness-triangulation-and-the-librarian-way-a-news-literacy-toolkit-for-a-post-truth-world/ (Joyce Valenza)

Fake News is Old News

• Sixth century: Procopius writes dubious information in the Anecdota

• 1522: Pietro Aretino writes false sonnets to sway the pontifical election

• 1700s: “Canards” developed in Paris, and thrive for 200 years

• January 2017: White House Advisor Kellyanne Conway coins the term “alternative facts”

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http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/02/13/the-true-history-of-fake-news/ (Robert Darnton)

Fake News is Old News

“The Yellow Press,” 1910. (Library of Congress)

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How to Spot Fake News

Rules of Thumb:

• Check “About” and “About Me” Pages (Credentials)

• Interrogate URLs (.co or .lo are suspect)

• Suspect sensational, florid language

• Check the sources an author mentions, to make sure those original sources actually support new claims

• Triangulate: Corroborate information in multiple sources

http://blogs.slj.com/neverendingsearch/2016/11/26/truth-truthiness-triangulation-and-the-librarian-way-a-news-literacy-toolkit-for-a-post-truth-world/ (Joyce Valenza)

How to Spot Fake News

1. Know what type of content you are reading. News report? Opinion piece?

2. Know the sources and why they are being cited

3. Understand the evidence and how it was vetted

4. Decide if the main argument is proven by the information presented

5. See if there is anything missing from the story

6. Decide if your media diet tells you what you need to know

Browser Plugin for Detecting Fake News: http://bsdetector.tech/

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Source: https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/six-critical-questions-can-use-evaluate-media-content/

Who Decides?

Crowdsourced project led by Melissa Zimdars, involving many librarians, to identify reliable and unreliable web sites

Who Decides?

Crowdsourced project led by Melissa Zimdars, involving many librarians, to identify reliable and unreliable web sites

Who Decides?

Source: http://www.chronicle.com/article/Meet-the-Professor-Who-s/238441

Who Decides?

https://psmag.com/meet-the-professor-calling-out-the-fake-and-misleading-news-sites-clogging-your-facebook-feed-9e98256c65

Who Decides?

http://www.bizpacreview.com/2016/11/19/bogus-hit-list-removed-radical-liberal-exposed-crying-fake-news-will-new-weapon-414026

How Fake News Works (Even on Librarians)

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/contemporary-psychoanalysis-in-action/201612/fake-news-why-we-fall-it

How Fake News Works (Even on Librarians)

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/01/donald-trump-lies-liar-effect-brain-214658

HOW YOUTH SERVICES LIBRARIANS CAN CHALLENGE FAKE NEWS

COUNTERING FAKE NEWS REQUIRES MORE THAN FACTS AND LISTS AND TIPS AND TRICKS YOUNG CHILDREN: ENCOURAGING THEM TO TELL THE TRUTH MIDDLE SCHOOL CHILDREN: CONTESTS TO DISTINGUISH NEWS FROM ADS THAT PURPORT TO BE NEWS HIGH SCHOOL CHILDREN: TRAINING TO BECOME REPORTERS

Countering Fake News Requires More than Facts and Lists and Tips and Tricks

Source: https://points.datasociety.net/did-media-literacy-backfire-7418c084d88d

Countering Fake News Requires More than Facts and Lists and Tips and Tricks

Source: http://bit.ly/2mIoIZY

Countering Fake News Requires More than Facts and Lists and Tips and Tricks

https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2017/02/27/why-the-american-public-seems-allergic-to-facts/

Young Children: Encouraging Them to Tell the Truth

Idea for Discussion:

• Utilize library story times to impart the value of telling the truth and treating others fairly

• Children at this age are too young to understand the nuances of “fake news,” but can begin to appreciate the values of honest and fairness

Suggestion: Emphasize stories in which honesty is rewarded, not stories in which dishonesty is punished

• Rationale for Suggestion: https://www.wired.com/2014/08/teaching-kids-to-tell-truth/

– In University of Toronto study, children were more likely to be honest after learning that George Washington could not tell a lie than upon discovering that Pinocchio often lied. Use carrots, not sticks.

Middle School Children: Contests to Distinguish News from Ads that Purport to be News

Source: http://slate.me/2h9zjJ6

High School Students: Training to Become Reporters

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/dallas/2016/11/26/dallas-public-library-dallas-morning-news-seek-high-school-students-eager-report

Open Discussion: Ideas for Youth Services Librarians

• These are starting points, each of you know what would work in your libraries.

• The Dallas program is quite ambitious, it would be possible to start smaller and build up to that level.

• What are your ideas and reactions to these proposals? Share now and throughout the day! Thank you!

Contact Information

• Email: mab992@yahoo.com

• Twitter: @marcusabanks

• Web Site: https://marcusabanks.com/