Fake News and Media Bias

“… Our “digital natives” may be able to fit between Facebook and Twitter while simultaneously uploading a selfe to Instagram and texting a friend. But when it comes to evaluating information that fows through social media channels, they are easily duped…”

Results of 1) an online survey of more than 2,000 middle and high school teachers drawn from the Advanced Placement (AP) and National Writing Project (NWP) communities; and 2) a series of online and offline focus groups with middle and high school teachers and some of their students.

“… Most of our students are source illiterate. This is not their fault. They haven’t had the exposure we’ve had to quirky friend’s reading habits. They haven’t wondered whether anyone might have discovered, collected and published first-person narratives of the Dust Bowl. They probably haven’t heard of the Library of Congress or the Smithsonian, and they are bombarded with content from The Guardian, The Huffington Post, and Buzzfeed. This means that they make classic mistakes when they are looking for, and looking at, information… “

"Search competency is a form of literacy, like learning a language or subject. Like any literacy, it requires having discrete skills as well as accumulating experience in how and when to use them" This is about search skills more than evaluation skills, but a key to being able to evaluate is being able to find multiple sources and to dig behind trending stories.