Ah, fake news. As a phenomenon, its truthiness is both fascinating (from an epistemological perspective, at least) and highly troubling (from the perspective of anyone who cares about information literacy, quality research, social justice, ...). Many anthropologists and others have spent a lot of time not only countering fake news messages -- the recently infamous Google Memo is a good example -- but trying to understand how and why fake news works. For instance, take Scientific American's Anthropology in Practice articles on "Understanding The Social Capital of Fake News" (28 November 2016) and "Three Historical Examples of "Fake News"" (1 December 2016).Discerning valid arguments based on evidence from what might be called "fake news" has always been an important part of a university education. Yet, the challenges we face in how we teach this kind of critical thinking seem to be becoming ever more difficult in the current climate and through the proliferation of messages in our contemporary media.
Luckily, hardworking librarians exist to help uphold information literacy teaching and learning, like those at the Toronto Public Library. Toronto librarians have put together an accessible page on How to Spot Fake News that poses important questions to consider (and why to consider them) when assessing the validity of a message, article, post, or news site, as well as links to additional resources. While some of these additional resources are available only to TPL patrons, many more are accessible to anyone, such as this list of Research Guides:
- How Do I Spot Fake News? (University of Toronto Libraries)
- Fake News: Resources (Indiana University East)
- Fake News, Misinformation, and Propaganda (Harvard University)
- Fighting Fake News: Start (Gustavus Adolphus College)
- Evaluating Information - Applying the CRAAP Test (PDF) (Meriam Library)
- How to Identify Fake News in 10 Steps (ProQuest)
- Updated 14 January 2018: The BBC has another 10 point checklist Fake news: Universities offer tips on how to spot it
- Updated 14 January 2018: And the TLDR version... check out this informative, accessible video from Quartz featuring journalist Damaso Reyes (3:05 minutes).
Now that you are armed with these great resources and questions, happy back to class!
Quick Links and further reading:
- What is ‘Fake News’? (Sociological Imagination, 2017)
- "Understanding The Social Capital of Fake News" and "Three Historical Examples of "Fake News"" (Scientific American's Anthropology in Practice, 2016).
- Anthropologists need to address the Google memo on its merits. Again. (Anthrodendum, 2017)
- How to Spot Fake News (Toronto Public Library)
- anthro everywhere!'s page on Reading Lists, Syllabi, & Teaching Resources including a link to the Calling Bullshit in the Age of Big Data Syllabus
Updated 14 January 2018
