Disinformation, Misinformation, and Fake News Teach-Out

In this step, Jo Angela Oehrli, University of Michigan Learning Librarian, recommends overarching principles that will enable you to critically consume information.

• Read laterally. While consuming a story, navigate to a new browser window and explore the contributors, the supporting evidence, related stories. Who else is talking about this topic? What are the motivations of the authors and the site in sharing it?
• Read widely. To get a complete understanding of an issue, it is important to read information from a wide variety of sources in order to reveal alternative perspectives on the news that you may not have considered.
• Become comfortable with ambiguity. When a story challenges your preconceptions on a topic, you may feel vulnerable or unsure. In some cases, a single definitive answer to a question may not be realistic.

Consider all of these practices - ahead of sharing. This is one of the most important actions you can adopt to minimize the spread of disinformation and misinformation.

Action Activity: Find a story in the media and read it like you normally would. Then, reread it with the strategies that Jo Angela Oehrli outlines. If you’re comfortable, share your story and thoughts with others. Think about the following questions:

• Who is represented: Who are the contributors? What is their relationship to the news story? Whose voice is not being represented?
• How does it feel: Is the story meant to be informational or to cause a certain emotion? Does this information just affirm my previous understanding? Does it feel balanced?
• Can it be trusted: Where is there ambiguity in the story? Where did the statistics or other types of evidence come from? Do I feel comfortable sharing the story onward or is there more investigation to do?