Fake News
Articles, Videos, and More
Videos are marked with an ❅.
Akpan, Nsikan. "The Very Real Consequences of Fake News Stories and Why Your Brain Can’t Ignore Them." PBS Newshour. 5 Dec. 2016.
- Nsikan gives an historical background of fake news before discussing its societal implications.
Baker, Frank W. "Students Need Our Help Detecting Fake News." Middleweb. 20 Nov. 2016.
- Baker suggests classroom activities that teachers can use to help students identify fake news.
Bessette, Lee Skallerup. "Stop The Spread of Fake News." The Chronicle of Higher Education. 15 Nov. 2016.
- Bessette provides a summary of issues concerning fake news. She includes a list of advise for identifying fake news websites.
Chemaly, Soraya. "Fake News and Online Harassment Are More Than Social Media Byproducts — They're Powerful Profit Drivers." Salon. 17 Dec. 2016.
- Chemaly explains how people make money from fake news and harassment.
Dreid, Nadia. "Meet the Professor Who’s Trying to Help You Steer Clear of Clickbait." The Chronicle of Higher Education. 17 Nov. 2016.
- The article is an interview with Melissa Zimdars who compiled and published a list of "popular but unreliable news sites."
Hedges, Chris. "‘Fake News’ in America: Homegrown, and Far From New." Common Dreams. 19 Dec. 2016. [recommended by Clark Iverson]
- Hedges describes how what are considered to be legitimate news sources are actually purveyors of fake news.
Higgins, Andrew, Mike McIntire, and Gabriel J.X. Dance. "Inside a Fake News Sausage Factory: ‘This Is All About Income’." The New York Times. 25 Nov. 2016.
- The article uses Beqa Latsabidze as a case study to show how fake news is created and distributed. The financial benefits to those writing fake news is highlighted.
Ignatius, David. "In Today’s World, the Truth is Losing." The Washington Post. 29 Nov. 2016.
- Ignatius argues that "The real challenge for global tech giants is to restore the currency of truth."
Ingraham, Christopher. "Why Conservatives Might be More Likely to Fall for Fake News." The Washington Post. 7 Dec. 2016.
- Ingraham investigates the "robust body of academic research has sprung up in the past decade or so, documenting the different ways conservatives and liberals process the world."
Inskeep, Steve. "A Finder's Guide To Facts." National Public Radio. 11 Dec. 2016. [recommeded by Linda Schmidt]
- Inskeep provides a list of questions a reader should ask to access the accuracy of a news story.
Kang, Cecilia. "Fake News Onslaught Targets Pizzeria as Nest of Child-Trafficking." The New York Times. 21 Nov. 2016.
- A case study of Comet Ping Pong, a pizzeria that was the victim of "made-up articles about Mrs. [Hillary] Clinton kidnapping, molesting and trafficking children in the restaurant's back rooms."
Konnikova, Maria. "How Headlines Change the Way We Think." The New Yorker. 27 Dec. 2014.
- Konnikova explains why the headline might be the most important part of an article.
Leetaru, Kalven. "'Fake News' And How The Washington Post Rewrote Its Story On Russian Hacking Of The Power Grid." Forbes. 1 Jan. 2017.
- After the Washington Post published an article claiming that Russian hackers penetrated the United States electricity grid, Leetaru explains how "this narrative was false and as the chronology below will show, illustrates how effectively false and misleading news can ricochet through the global news echo chamber through the pages of top tier newspapers that fail to properly verify their facts."
Lotan, Gilad. "Fake News Is Not the Only Problem: Bias, Propaganda, and Deliberately Misleading Information are Much More Prevalent and Do More Damage." Points. 23 Nov. 2016.
- "Fake news is a serious problem that should be addressed. But by focusing solely on that issue, we are missing the larger, more harmful phenomenon of misleading, biased propaganda."
Maheshwari, Sapna. "How Fake News Goes Viral: A Case Study." The New York Times. 20 Nov. 2016.
- A case study of Eric Tucker's false claim that protesters were being bussed by Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump rallies. The positive impact this had on Tucker are detailed.
McCoy, Theresa. "For the ‘New Yellow Journalists,’ Opportunity Comes in Clicks and Bucks." The Washington Post. 20 Nov. 2016.
- A profile of Paris Wade and Ben Goldman who make a living writing fake news.
Moon, Jade. "Have I Got Some News For You — and How to Tell Real from Fake." Jade Moon. 2 Dec. 2016. [recommended by Linda Tomei]
- moon describes the problem of fake news and how to spot it.
Peters, Jeremy. "Wielding Claims of ‘Fake News,’ Conservatives Take Aim at Mainstream Media." The New York Times. 25 Dec. 2016. [recommended by Bob Czuprynski]
- Peters explains how conservatives " have appropriated the term [fake news] and turned it against any news they see as hostile to their agenda."
Robertson, Lori and Eugene Kiely. "How to Spot Fake News." FactCheck.org. 18 Nov. 2016.
- The authors provide guidelines on how to spot fake news.
Rodgers, Daniel T. "When Truth Becomes a Commodity." Chronicle of Higher Education. 15 Jan. 2017.
- Rodgers argues that we do not live in a "post truth" world as some of claimed. Rather we live in a world of competing claims of truth.
Rothstei. "Taxonomy of News Methodologies as Regards to Factuality." Interdome. 8 Dec. 2016.
- Rothstei provides a lists of terms that can serve as "a starting point for classifying types of news based on their intentional methodology, as regards factuality."
Shane, Scott. "From Headline to Photograph, a Fake News Masterpiece." New York Times. 18 Jan. 2017.
- A profile of Cameron Harris who developed a fake news site.
Shahani, Aarti. "From Hate Speech To Fake News: The Content Crisis Facing Mark Zuckerberg." National Public Radio. 17 Nov. 2016.
- Shahani explains that Mark Zuckerberg "and his team have made a very complex set of contradictory rules — a bias toward restricted speech for regular users, and toward free speech for "news" (real or fake). And the company relies on a sprawling army of subcontractors to enforce the rules." How fake news is impacting Facebook and the decisions being made by Facebook are discussed.
Shapiro, Craig. "The Simple Way You Can Fight Back Against Fake News." Good. 6 Dec. 2016.
- Shapiro explains a strategy developed by Sleeping Giants to notify advertisers when they appear on misleading and fake news sites.
Solon, Olivia and Sam Levine. "How Google's Search Algorithm Spreads False Information with a Rightwing Bias." The Guardian. 16 Dec. 2016.
- Solon and Levine explain how "Search and autocomplete algorithms prioritize sites with rightwing bias, and far-right groups trick it to boost propaganda and misinformation in search rankings."
❅ South Park Studios. "It’s Not a News Story!?" YouTube. 19 Nov. 2015. [recommended by Dan Duso]
- In this 1:23 video, Stephen describes what it is like to be distracted while trying to read news on television.
"Students Have 'Dismaying' Inability To Tell Fake News From Real, Study Finds." National Public Radio. 23 Nov. 2016.
- "Stanford researchers assessed students from middle school to college and found they struggled to distinguish ads from articles, neutral sources from biased ones and fake accounts from real ones."
Sullivan, Margaret. "It’s Time to Retire the Tainted Term 'Fake News.'" The Washington Post. 8 Jan. 2017.
- Sullivan argues that the term "fake news" is now so tainted that it needs to be retired.
Sydell, Laura. "We Tracked Down A Fake-News Creator In The Suburbs. Here's What We Learned." National Public Radio. 23 Nov. 2016.
- An interview with Jestin Coler about his fake news media empire. This article serves as the basis for a lesson plan on Research How a Story is Reported which includes links to two highly partisan websites that reported on this article.
❅ Tavlin, Noah. "How False News Can Spread." Ted Talk. 27 Aug. 2015. [3:41]
- "In previous decades, most news with global reach came from several major newspapers and networks with the resources to gather information directly. The speed with which information spreads now, however, has created the ideal conditions for something called circular reporting. Noah Tavlin sheds light on this phenomenon."
Timberg, Craig. "Russian Propaganda Effort Helped Spread ‘Fake News’ During Election, Experts Say." The Washington Post. 24 Nov. 2016.
- The author describes the findings of "Two teams of independent researchers found that the Russians exploited American-made technology platforms to attack U.S. democracy at a particularly vulnerable moment, as an insurgent candidate harnessed a wide range of grievances to claim the White House."
Vaters, Karl. "A Matter of Integrity: Why Christians Must Stop Taking the Fake News Bait." Christianity Today. 3 Jan. 2017.
- After discussing the issue of fake news from a Christian perspective, Vaters offers " a simple 4-step check-list to help us stop passing fake news along."
Willingham, A.J. "Here's How to Outsmart Fake News in Your Facebook Feed." National Public Radio. 23 Nov. 2016.
- Willingham argues that "Fake News is Actually Really Easy to Spot — If You Know How." He then provides guidelines individuals can use to spot fake news.
Zimdars, Melissa. "My 'Fake News List' Went Viral. But Made-up Stories are Only Part of the Problem.." The Washington Post. 18 Nov. 2016.
- Zimdars describes the problem of fake and other news.
