Those of you who visit this blog on the regular can probably tell I hit the ground running in the new school year. I always tell myself that the new year will be different, and without fail, it takes less than one week of rolling into the parking lot at the crack of dawn to wipe out every ounce of residual rest from the summer break.
I’ve missed you, though.
It’s fall break now, and the state fair opened today. There’s a frost warning for the area, and the heat is on again for the first time since last spring.
Must be time for an election.
Speaking of elections and the changing of the seasons, there’s one season that never changes—fake news season! We’ve been going strong with fake news since 2016 here in the US.
We’ve been going strong with fake news documentation on planet Earth since *checks note* 1274 BC when Ramses II was the pharaoh of Egypt. If you haven’t read True or False: A CIA Analyst’s Guide to Spotting Fake News by Cindy L. Otis, you’re going to want to head over to your favorite bookstore real quick and grab that one. There’s something strangely comforting in knowing political propaganda has been going strong for millennia.
There is nothing new under the sun, and so far, it keeps rising and setting. Thank you, Lord.
Right before we launched into fall break, our Intro to Journalism & Media class completed a lesson on identifying fake news. The lesson began with students scoping out an article they thought was fake news and doing a preliminary analysis worksheet.
Then we presented tips from media experts on identifying fake news. Turned out some of our articles were, indeed, misinformation (or maybe disinformation, but I’m glad to report disinformation seemed to be harder to find this election year). But an overwhelming number of the articles the students identified as fake news were actually examples of good ol’ media bias.
We’ll be looking at media bias next week. But for now, in case your classes are reeling in the October election frenzy, I’ve uploaded the fake news analysis worksheet and a PDF of the presentation on spotting fake news.
Happy Truth-Hunting!
Always Learning HQ 