WEEKEND NEWS
What is fake news?
News that appears to be true but is not
News, stories or hoaxes created to deliberately misinform or deceive.
These are are designed to influence people's views
push a political agenda
cause confusion
a way of business or publishers to profit
They often look like trusted websites and reputable news organizations.
The three elements of fake news: Mistrust, misinformation and manipulation
fake news explained 2:50
TYPES OF FAKE NEWS
1. Clickbait
These are stories that are deliberately fabricated to gain more website visitors and increase advertising revenue for websites. Clickbait stories use sensationalist headlines to grab attention and drive click-throughs to the publisher website, normally at the expense of truth or accuracy.
NOTE: MARKETERS TRACK YOUR CLICKS
2. Propaganda
Stories that are created to deliberately mislead audiences, promote a biased point of view or particular political cause or agenda.
3. Satire/Parody
Lots of websites and social media accounts publish fake news stories for entertainment and parody. For example; The Onion, Waterford Whispers, The Daily Mash, etc.
‘Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ Cast Members Clock Into Amazon Warehouse For Mandatory Black Friday Overtime Shift
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4. Sloppy Journalism
Sometimes reporters or journalists may publish a story with unreliable information or without checking all of the facts which can mislead audiences. For example, during the U.S. elections, fashion retailer Urban Outfitters published an Election Day Guide, the guide contained incorrect information telling voters that they needed a ‘voter registration card’. This is not required by any state in the U.S. for voting.
5. Misleading Headings
Stories that are not completely false can be distorted using misleading or sensationalist headlines. These types of news can spread quickly on social media sites where only headlines and small snippets of the full article are displayed on audience newsfeeds.
6. Biased/Slanted News
Many people are drawn to news or stories that confirm their own beliefs or biases and fake news can prey on these biases. Social media news feeds tend to display news and articles that they think we will like based on our personalised searches.
What can we do about fake news?
Google and Facebook have announced new measures to tackle fake news with the introduction of reporting and flagging tools. Media organisations like the BBC and Channel 4 have also established fact checking sites While these are welcome developments, digital media literacy and developing skills to critically evaluate information are essential skills for anyone navigating the internet and especially for young people.
The vast amount of information available online and rise in fake news highlights the need for critical thinking.
Vocabulary to assess news.
Class handout.
Practice 1:
Skills Practice | Distinguishing Between Fact and Opinion
BY JONATHAN OLSEN, SARAH GROSS AND KATHERINE SCHULTEN
Scores of people dressed as Santa Claus gathered at the South Street Seaport in 2011 during the SantaCon pub crawl. Some find this annual event, which takes place on Dec. 14
An article published in The Times on Dec. 13 begins:
On Saturday, a festive, besotted mob of 20- and 30-somethings, decked out in various measures of Santa Claus dress and undress, will descend on the bars of lower New York City and rain down Christmas cheer like spoiled eggnog.This obnoxious event is SantaCon. For those living in peaceful oblivion, SantaCon is an annual tradition in which revelers dress up as Kriss Kringle (or, at least, put on a Santa hat) and participate en masse in an often literal bar crawl, cramming 12 nights of Christmas boozing into a single afternoon.
Where in the newspaper do you think this article was published? Is it A) a news report that belongs on the front page? B) a review in the Arts section? Or C) an Op-Ed piece in the Opinion section?
If you chose C, you’re right. In “Bring Drunken Santas Under Control,” Jason O. Gilbert argues that SantaCon “contributes absolutely zero value — cultural, artistic, aesthetic, diversionary, culinary or political — to its host neighborhood.” To do this, he relates facts like the history and reach of the event to make his case, but much of the writing is a colorful, impassioned and often funny plea for New Yorkers to ban, or reign in, this tradition.
DIRECTIONS: Read the full piece. Which lines in it are facts? Which are opinions? How can you tell the difference?
On your sheet underline with one line a fact and a double line for an opinion.
***********************************************************************
Bring Drunken Santas Under Control
By Jason O. Gilbert
ON
Saturday, a festive, besotted mob of 20- and 30-somethings, decked out in
various measures of Santa Claus
dress and undress, will descend on the bars of lower New York City and rain
down Christmas cheer like spoiled eggnog.
This obnoxious event is SantaCon. For those
living in peaceful oblivion, SantaCon is an annual tradition in which revelers
dress up as Kriss Kringle (or, at least, put on a Santa hat) and participate en
masse in an often literal bar crawl, cramming 12 nights of Christmas boozing
into a single afternoon.
Though its exact origins are somewhat murky,
SantaCon as we know it probably first occurred in 1994,
when members of a prank-happy urban adventure club stormed the streets of San
Francisco in Santa outfits as a subversive expression of
anti-commercialism and protest theater. Since then, the Saint Nick
takeover has shed its dissident roots and expanded into a more traditional
booze-athon, with SantaCon events taking place in more than 300 cities in 44 countries.
The largest is in
New York City. Though the tradition may have started as a counterculture act,
participating in the Big Apple’s version of SantaCon is about as
anti-establishment as a trip to Disney World.
The Santas — and if
you need to imagine a typical participant, just think of Billy Bob Thornton in “Bad
Santa,” if the character were 24 and worked at Bain Capital — generally arrive
via bridge, tunnel, subway and, perhaps this year, CitiBike. In the past, they
have convened in Midtown and marched down to the East Village, where the
majority of the day’s jubilations typically occur; those who were still
conscious then took the train to terrorize Brooklyn. Chronologically, SantaCon
lasts from about 10 a.m. until whatever time the last Santa passes out on a
park bench somewhere.
Indeed, SantaCons of
years past have been distinguished by sexism, drunkenness, xenophobia,
homophobia and enough incidents of public vomiting and urination to fill an
infinite dunk tank. Despite these rampant violations, the departing police
commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, recently praised SantaCon, claiming that it
“makes New York New York.”
Perhaps most
distressing about SantaCon is its size and the way that it shuts down and
befouls dozens of blocks. Any East Villager (I am one) can tell you that the
event makes doing absolutely anything beyond one’s front stoop an
impossibility, unless you own swamp waders and a riot shield. Last year, an
estimated 30,000 carousers participated in the festivities.
But really, it’s not
the disruption or the noise that rankles. New Yorkers can endure street
closures and inconveniences for any number of events so long as there is a
beneficent impulse, or an obvious reason for the disruption. For a New York
City event of its size, however, SantaCon is distinctive, and arguably
impressive, in that it contributes absolutely zero value — cultural, artistic,
aesthetic, diversionary, culinary or political — to its host neighborhood.
Quite simply, SantaCon is a parasite.
SantaCon apologists
point to its sizable charitable donations (a $10 donation to charity is
required to “officially” participate), and the sugar rush of money injected to
local business (especially alcohol business) owners. But the ends don’t always
justify the means; and when the means include a neighborhood of kids having to
watch simulacra of beloved childhood figures stumbling around, picking fights
with passers-by — well, the ends aren’t justified. Charity is not a quid pro
quo proposition.
In November, a New York police
lieutenant, John Cocchi, wrote an open letter urging his district’s bar owners not
to serve obviously inebriated Santas, and it appears that the melee will skip
Midtown this year. More recently, The Daily News reported that SantaCon’s organizers
would work more closely with the Police Department, providing detailed
information about the traditionally secret bar crawl route, and stationing 80
“helper elves” along the route to ensure that things don’t get out of hand.
That’s a good start, but it seems a bit like closing the
stable door after the reindeer have bolted. It’s unlikely that some
well-intentioned volunteers will be able to control a meaningful fraction of
the boozed-up mob. Meanwhile, history has proved that SantaCon Santas are
incapable of self-governing: Years of lax regulation have emboldened them to
spill their base instincts on the streets, without consequence.
What seems required, then, is a Police Department
approach that is less Ray Kelly and more John Cocchi: one that recognizes
SantaCon as disruptive, rather than benign. If our police force can actively
prevent the abhorrent behavior that residents have become accustomed to —
either by more aggressive ticketing, or just through an increased presence that
discourages misdemeanor crime — SantaCon should be allowed to proceed as the
charitable, cheerful, harmless festival that event press officers paint it as.
Otherwise, perhaps New York
should banish the Santas to the North Pole.
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