Fake news anyone?

Early this year I was fortunate to attend an amazing SLAV Conference (School Library Association of Victoria) on Real Libraries vs Fake News. We heard from experts in media, Dr Barbara Combes – Charles Sturt University; Misha Ketchell, Managing Editor of The Conversation (previously editor of ABC Media Watch), Jo Teng, Australian Copyright Council. I also attended a workshop with the Australian editor of Wikipedia (which I will discuss in a later blog). 

Dr Combes discussed the historical perspectives and different studies of Fake news and concluded her presentation by saying the studies indicate “that we need to educate our students about the online environment and the effect it has on information reliability and dissemination. Our students need to understand that how we use the medium is actually part of the problem and it can have far reaching effects on how society is informed and by whom. There is a fine line between fake news and political propaganda or alternative facts. We have fake news because the information landscape today is incredibly complex; consists of multiple perspectives from multiple authors (anyone can publish); enables rapid dissemination of information that is often decontextualized or out of context and it is easy to manipulate or alter. To become informed today is actually much harder than pre-Internet, even though we have more information available and at our finger tips. The big question is can we find and sift out the good information from the fake. In an Information Age where our understandings are constantly changing, to equip our students with the knowledge and skills to be able to find and evaluate information is a primary goal of education and a major role for the information specialists in the library”.

Misha Ketchell explained how The Conversation came about, what its aims are, and how accurate the articles and references are. The Conversation is supported by numerous Australian universities and some philanthropic donations. Every day at least twenty people discuss the latest news/topics. Once decided on the topic, an expert is approached to write an article. This article is then blind checked by another expert for accuracy and reliability before publishing. ABC factcheck is also involved.

As part of Information Literacy Lessons this year, year 8 and year 7 students have learning how to spot fake news and choose relevant resources. They have also learnt how to search effectively for information. This included reverse image search, Boolean searching, keywords and quotations. They also learnt about fact checking sites and reliable news sources. Hopefully they also learnt to also double, triple check their sources and facts! They have also looked at the difference between headlines, news and the Fourth Estate (investigative journalism) = truth, facts and trust. One of the sites they looked at was the Edelman Trust Barometer. This showed the survey undertaken on Australian trust by respondents on NGOs, government, business and the media.