[Music] [Applause] the world is incredible for example this man created an electric card that doesn't require charging scientists have been able to make amazing creations like this lemon pomegranate hybrid they've also taught a gorilla to knit they've come up with innovative cuisines such as pumpkin spice Bologna all of these stories are sensational they are also fake and I have a feeling some of you believe them people are capable of conjuring up anything from fictitious freaks of nature to political propaganda and causing you to fall for it when we see these sensational articles not only can't
we wait to read them we can't wait to share them shared doctored photos like these alone will not be toppling our democracy any time soon but our refusal to look at information given to us with at least an inkling of skepticism can have real negative effects even typical media outlets which many consider to be a reputable source for news are susceptible to falling for false stories satirical news site The Onion formulated an article detailing a fictitious 75,000 word email sent to the entire country by a frustrated President Obama despite the over-the-top details the article provided
such as the email allegedly closing with yes we can ugh you know what forget it believe what you want Fox is opinion website Fox Nation used excerpts from the article in their own piece annex in a climate where we can't always trust that the Intel given to us by even traditionally trusted sources has been verified how do we determine what is true what is false and what is misleading when I was to write an informational speech for a club at my school I was told to focus on five things when gathering information currency reliability Authority
accuracy and purpose while this elegantly named method may assist me in gaining enough knowledge to write a rambling seven-minute speech on a life and legacy of John Hancock it does not equip one for when misinformation has become so widespread and widely accepted that applying the crap method would not alert one to falsehoods that have been glossed over take for example the incident that took place in January of 2019 when a viral video allegedly showed Covington Catholic High School students yelling at and abusing a Native American elder in Washington DC let's write this using the crap
method is it current yes is it reliable there's video evidence so yes is it authoritative authoritative sources such as the Washington Post the New York Times and CNN all reported that the students were verbally attacking the elder to check for accuracy students are told to check if other authoritative sources are reporting the same thing which as previously stated they were how about purpose most viewers and readers of this story would classify the purpose of these news pieces as to inform using the Kratt method this would seem like an accurate story by simply watching the original
uncut footage of the incident a much more complicated reality was revealed the student prominently featured in the video did not verbally attack the elder the culprits of the most egregious taunting were not even in the short viral version of the video incidents such as this exhibit that the basic process that many have been taught to evaluate information while offering a great start is not completely adequate so what can you do to combat misinformation well I took it upon myself to create my own acronym it may not be quite as amusing as the previous method but
without further ado I present to you how to spot a fable f-find original footage figures and research to be sure you are educated on what is true and what is not without depending on others to summarize it for you I realize that's a lot of work and you may be thinking I simply don't have time for that however even a little research may uncover the truthfulness of a story a analyse the headline was it written to elicit a reaction while some headlines can be both shocking and true many times a juicy headline may mean that
the article is most likely not concerned with the truth according to a 2016 Columbia University study it was found that 59% of news links shared on social media were not even read by the user prior to sharing think about that almost six out of every 10 articles shared on social media we're not even read before they were shared B bias check your own your own personal biases can cause you to avoid skepticism with both the President Obama email and Covington Catholic stories some of those who spread the stories the most had internal biases that caused
them to wish the reports were true the more a story plays into the narrative that fits your worldview the more you suddenly lose any desire to check for accuracy and are instead met with an urge to share it with others l look to fact checkers such as Snopes or PolitiFact they are quick and easy ways to vet stories that you wish to share and finally II exert self-control if you aren't 100% sure that the hot scoop you want to serve is accurate then don't share it in reality it comes down to us to prevent the
spread of fake news I understand it's not easy to stop yourself from sharing an article that seems to illustrate your position perfectly but imagine if we all just took a brief step back before sharing and vetted the information first by rising above and being conscious of the impact of the content that we circulate accuracy will become the norm until then remember to be skeptical there's a lot of baloney out there and none of it is pumpkin spice [Applause] [Music]
