Discussion: Online Information Landscape
Description
Instructions
Media/Reading
Take a few minutes to explore ONE of the following research guides. Look at each page of the guide and follow some of the links — you don’t have to read everything, but get a sense of the content of the guide. As you explore, consider how the information on the guide relates to this week’s videos and tutorials.
Real vs. Fake News: How to Avoid Lies, Hoaxes, and Clickbait and Find the Truth (Links to an external site.)
Science vs. Pseudoscience: Debunking Fake Science News and Developing Scientific Literacy (Links to an external site.)
Watch the 9-minute video of Eli Pariser’s TED Talk, which appears on the Home page of each research guide listed in Step 1, above.
Read/watch/listen to ONE of the following sources:
Article: Don’t Want to Fall For Fake News? Don’t Be Lazy (Links to an external site.)
Article: Former Facebook Exec Says Social Media Is Ripping Apart Society (Links to an external site.)
Article: How Mermaids Became a Real Problem for Scientists (Links to an external site.)
Article: Magazines Find There’s Little Time to Fact-Check Online (Links to an external site.)
Article: Stanford Researchers Find Students Have Trouble Judging the Credibility of Information Online (Links to an external site.)
Article: This is How Your Hyperpartisan Political News Gets Made (Links to an external site.)
Article: UW Professor: The Information War is Real, and We’re Losing It (Links to an external site.)
Article: Why Students Can’t Google Their Way to the Truth (Links to an external site.)
Article: You Don’t Need To Worry About Roundup in Your Breakfast Cereal (Links to an external site.)
Podcast: Fit to Print? A History of Fake News (Links to an external site.) (you only need to listen to one of the three segments)
Radio Broadcast: New Software Can Mimic Anyone’s Voice (Links to an external site.)
Video: I Made My Shed the #1 Restaurant in London (Links to an external site.)
Video: Why We Should Trust Scientists (Links to an external site.)
Bonus: If you’d like, play a round or two of the Factitious News Game, which appears on the Test Your Knowledge page of both guides. It’s fun, but not required!
First Post
Answer the questions below in essay form (i.e. in complete paragraphs rather than by answering each question individually). Your post should be about 250-300 words (about two paragraphs), not including the citations at the end. The majority of your comments should reflect your own ideas, but you should support your points by referring to specific ideas or information from the Eli Pariser video and the the other source you chose under Step 3 above .
Whenever you include someone else’s ideas or information, you must cite the source of those ideas, whether you quote directly, summarize, or paraphrase from the source. For this discussion, you should include both an in-text citation and a full citation at the end of your essay. Hanging indents (indenting all the lines in the citation except the first line) are difficult to format in Canvas and are not required in discussion posts.
Questions
How has misinformation/disinformation affected you? How might filter bubbles have influenced the situation? How did the article/podcast/video you chose add to your understanding?
How do you get your information about the world? Do you have any concerns about the quality of the information you are exposed to? Why or why not?
What strategies have you learned this week that will help you avoid misinformation and/or find better information in the future?
