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Information Literacy & Fake News

"Fake news" is a hot topic these days and learning to discern the real news goes hand in hand with information literacy.

Breaking News: Real, Disinformation or Mash-up?

Breaking News:  Real, Disinformation or Mash-up?:  A guide to determining reliability, credibility and bias in news sources.  The guide is a collaboration between Sandra Smith, Debbie Sharp and Sarah Vaughn of the University of Kentucky and Heather Beirne of Eastern Kentucky University, built for students and the general public.  

Detecting Bias - Media Literacy skills

"Can you tell whether a news source is conservative, liberal, or mostly neutral?" Excellent news analysis worksheet available on this guide on media literacy from Regina Seguin of Valencia College Libraries.  Look for the News Source Analysis worksheet in the Activity box.

Don’t Get Faked by the News

Blog post by Lesley J. Farmer, on AASL's KnowledgeQuest, which includes resources and guides on media literacy, and links to archived professional development webinars that will help a librarian or educator help students navigate this topic.

Fact Checking, Verification & Fake News

Fact Checking, Verification & Fake News  Also includes an excellent one-pager on spotting fake news, look for the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism  Fake News Cheat Sheet.  Created by the Research Center at CUNY's Graduate School of Journalism and Barbara Gray, Chief Librarian and Associate Professor.

Fake News, Alternative Facts and Librarians As Dedicated Defenders of Truth

Library Girl's blog post on fake news.   Includes excellent infographic "Tips for Spotting Fake News" poster.  Post contains links to articles on information literacy and the importance of evaluating news sources.  Created by Jennifer LaGarde.  

Fake News and "Alternative Facts": A Field Guide to Transmedia Navigation

From Kentucky's own Somerset Community College Learning Commons, this guide contains a variety of sources for learning how to fact-check your information sources as well as identify bias.   

Fake News: How to identify and avoid fake news

Fake News and How to identify and avoid fake news. "This LibGuide will give you valuable insight in telling fact from fiction online, plus a chance to exercise your newfound skills.."   Created by K.T. Lowe of Indiana University East.

Fake News, Misinformation, and Propaganda

Fake News, Misinformation, and Propaganda LibGuide from Harvard Library.  "This page provides background information, links, and tools from outside organizations to help guide users in navigating potential fake news."  The guide includes reports from Harvard, Stanford and other universities on importance of information literacy and analysis of news.  Browser plug-ins are also included:

Browser Plug-ins:

BS Detector (Chrome, Firefox, Safari)
Fake News Alert (Chrome)

Fake News, Misleading News, Biased News

Fake News, Misleading News, Biased News  LibGuide created by Ilene Frank of Hillsborough Community College, focused on articles on fake news, evaluating news sources and fact-checking.  Also includes links to websites to assist in evaluating sources, worksheets and assignments, terms, and open textbooks. 

Fake News - Questions to Ask

From Frank Baker and the Media Literacy Clearinghousea list of questions to ask, posters and graphics, handouts and articles regarding thinking critically about news sources.  

How to Spot Fake News (and Teach Kids to Be Media Savvy) - Common Sense Media

Parenting, Media, and Everything in Between blog post on  media literacy for kids and parents by Sierra Felucci for Common Sense Media.  

How to teach your students about fake news - PBS lesson plan

For grades 7-12, this 50-minute class lesson "gives students media literacy skills they need to navigate the media, including how to spot fake news." By Victoria Pasquantonio, PBS NewsHour education editor.

News and Media Literacy - Common Sense Media

News & Media Literacy videos, resources and more from Common Sense Meida, built for parents but useful for anyone with interactions in K12.  Information and questions are organized by age ranges.  Includes links to other research and handouts.  

Post-Truth: Fake News and a New Era of Information Literacy - webinar

"In this webinar, participants will:  Learn more about the rise of fake news, particularly those information behaviors that perpetuate its spread, Learn ways to identify fake news, and Explore methods to help library patrons identify fake news."   Presented by Nicole A. Cooke, MS/LIS Program Director of the iSchool at Illinois and an assistant professor at the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Recorded February 22, 2017.

Today's News: Separating Fact from Fiction

Today's News: Separating Fact from Fiction LibGuide.  Includes current articles on fake news, resources for fact-checking, explanations of types of fake news, includes definitions of the filter bubble and confirmation bias, also contains charts and learning activities.  Created by Denise Woetzel, Reference/Information Literacy Librarian, from Reynolds Community College Libraries.

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