Quote 1 summary
“We don’t fall for false news just because we’re dumb. Often it’s a matter of letting the wrong impulses take over”
Fake news or propaganda is often engineered to spread as much as possible. The author often intends to create something that has a strong reaction. So the Misinformation is designed to be reacted to. Take the often-spread misinformation about vaccinating children. Many parents who are against vaccinations do it out of genuine fear that something bad will happen to their child which is a real and human concern. Now when Aunt Jenny shares this article because she found it on what looks like a reputable source, the misinformation spreads. Jenny has no negative intentions in her mind when sharing the article but spread it anyways. Jenny’s friends and family trust Jenny so read the article and that is how the misinformation spreads. re-training our brains to resist snap judgments and think critically is the key to combatting the spread of misinformation. Some ways such as trusting the highest item on the Google search are outdated now. techniques involving Wikipedia search and verifying the URL of the site can help quickly verify the credentials of a website.
Quote 2 question
What is clear, however, is that there is another responsible party. The problem is not just malicious bots or chaos-loving trolls or Macedonian teenagers pushing phony stories for profit. The problem is also us, the susceptible readers. And experts like Wineburg believe that the better we understand the way we think in the digital world, the better chance we have to be part of the solution.”
What are the challenges of combating web misinformation? With so much out there it can be hard to come up with a one-note strategy to combat all misinformation.
Quote 3 is worth looking into more
“Our inability to parse truth from fiction on the Internet is, of course, more than an academic matter”
Media literacy is a skill that is becoming more and more necessary outside of analyzing what Shakespeare meant by the ghost in Hamlet. Media literacy has become invaluable in the age of information. It enables individuals to distinguish between fact and fiction and recognize bias. I think it is necessary to ponder how this will affect our and our students’ lives outside of the classroom. How can we as social studies teachers teach our students to have and use media literacy in everyday use?
