Fake News

You are writing a briefing paper.

You need a front cover and clear headings in the document.

Keep a record of the internet sources you use.

Have you identified a fake news story which has had a negative impact on a business?

For example:

Link here or here.

Structure of the briefing paper:

Front cover sheet.

AC 2.5 and 2.3
Use this heading:

'A fake news story.'

This is your comparison of the fake news website and the website which proves that the information was false.

Use screenshots or the snipping tool to include pictures from the websites.

What is the fake news story? Which web site featured the story?

Anti fake news story. Compare information on the story from at least one different website. Which website did you use?

What differences can you identify?

Give an example of correct (relevant) information about the company against false (irrelevant) information.

Draw valid conclusions about the differences between the websites.

AC 2.1
Use this heading:

'Assess reliability of information considering aspects such as source, writers qualifications and bias'.

What should you be looking for when making a judgement about the credibility of a website?

Is the writer named?

Does the writer claim particular qualifications?

Is there obvious bias demonstrated?

You could link this with your fake news story.

AC 1.1
Use this heading:

'Select and use different search engines for different purposes'.

Google is not the only search engine or type of search engine.

Describe the different types of internet search that are possible e.g. metasearch.

Explain that some sources of internet information (including some search engines) are more appropriate than others depending on the purpose of the search.

Which websites would you be suspicious about when trying to access information?

Explain why.

Which websites would you trust and why? More here.

Explain that different search engines may be more appropriate depending on the purpose of the search. Details here.

Section 4: Explain how to make an assessment about how reliable information is from a particular source.

AC 2.2
Use this heading:

'Evaluate information based on content rather than animation or graphics'.

Explain how some people may be more influenced by graphics, animation or pictures than the written content of the web page.

This link shows some of the things that web designers do to increase the length of time people stay on a website. Details here.

AC 2.4
Use this heading:

'Identify whether a source is primary or secondary and explain why this matters.

Explain that the correct information from the company is primary information and the incorrect information is secondary information.

Explain why this matters.

A company would be unlikely to make false claims about its products because of the reputational damage that would be caused.

AC 3.1 Bibliography

Some Fake News Stories

Click on the pictures:

Starbucks:

Xbox:

Coca Cola:

Internet Research

How 'fake news' grew in 2016. Details here.

Before the Internet, publishing fake news and gaining an audience that could generate a profit was nearly impossible for three reasons:

Distribution and cost: Distributing information on any kind of scale needed a prohibitively expensive media operation.
Audiences and trust: Building a large audience took much longer, and because it was expensive to acquire and built on trust of information, publishing fake news would be damaging to reputation and thus have economic consequences.
Law and regulation: Because it was expensive to distribute information, there were far fewer players. These abided by media law and could be regulated. Publishing fake news would likely end up with the publisher being sued.
The creation of social networks like Facebook and Twitter allowed people to exchange information on a much greater scale than ever before.
Publishing platforms like WordPress allowed anyone to create a dynamic website with ease.

How it works:

How to spot fake news:

Is this 'fake news?'

Other 'fake news' stories.
Click on the picture:

How fake news goes viral. Details here.
US election - fake news stories here.
Coca Cola damaged by fake news. Click on the picture:

More here.

Fake news & Hurricane Irma. Click on the picture.

Facebook and Google have promised to crack down on misinformation, although they have been criticised for failing to accept their place in its spread.

These include working with independent fact-checking organisations and labelling suspicious stories as such.