Fake News And Critical Thinking In Information Evaluation

In the post-truth era we are constantly bombarded with “news” which is fabricated, distorted, and massaged information, published with the intention to deceive and mislead others. Such “news” has come to be known as “fake news”. The influence of fake news can have profound socio-political and cultural effects when translated into action. The ability to distinguish between real facts, fabricated stories, rumours, propaganda, or opinions is of paramount importance. The rapid proliferation of information through social media is now the norm. In this paper we consider the challenge of preparing students, in developing skills for recognising mis-information, dis-information and mal-information. We argue that critical thinking for evaluating information should now be considered a basic literacy, equally important to literacy itself, as well as information and information technology literacies. In this paper we revisit Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive skills and represent what a learner can achieve at each level. We customise the traditional moral and ethical concepts suggested by the US Content Subcommittee of the Impact CS Steering Committee to flag the ethical concerns over mis-information, dis-information and mal-information. We report on current levels of awareness and practices at the authors’ five higher education institutions, and reveal varying levels of awareness of the significance of critical literacy and different practices in each location. The paper concludes with an outline of future work.

The widespread of deliberately fabricated information and published with the intention to deceive and mislead others into believing falsehoods or doubting verifiable facts. To find the best strategy for dealing with fake news and to improve the development of critical thinking and critical literacy as early as possible within formal education. Qualitative; Creating critical thinking cheat sheet; Interview. There is a growing awareness among staff (academics and librarians) of the need to develop critical skills among students. Researchers, students, academics and scientists in general need to develop critical literacy skills and awareness of the moral and ethical principles that should govern their research journey, and the way the use other researchers’ work.

Problematic issue

The societal impact of fake news can be immense as it creates information pollution. According to Wardle and Derakhshan (2017), the long-term implications of dis-information campaigns are designed specifically to sow mistrust and confusion and to sharpen existing socio-cultural divisions using nationalistic, ethnic, racial and religious tensions. In their Information Disorder Report they identify three types of untrustworthy information namely: mis-information, dis-information, and mal-information. Anderson and Rainie (2017), quoting Jamais Casgio, warn that “The crisis we face about ‘truth’ and reliable facts is predicated less on the ability to get people to believe the wrong thing as it is on the ability to get people to doubt the right thing.

Research problem objectives

To find the best strategy for dealing with fake news and to improve the development of critical thinking and critical literacy as early as possible within formal education and to have the ability to analyse and interpret media messages, irrespective of channel or format, is inextricably linked to self-determination, freedom of expression, democracy, and ethical information behaviour; UNESCO cites Media & Information Literacy as “an important prerequisite for fostering equitable access to information and knowledge and promoting free, independent and pluralistic media and information systems”. To encompass the information literacy more than the ability to discern “good” from “bad” information along the traditional academic lines of authority, currency and relevance, although these are still important criteria; rather, in this context, critical thinking should now extend to awareness and understanding of the dominant power structures that control information production and dissemination, the socio-political environments in which authority is constructed, and the interests and agendas of those who are responsible for the circulation.

Methods

Questions are important to know when new information encountered is reliable. These are questions that include, but also go beyond, the surface-level evaluation of quality, to interrogate the assumptions, privileges and agendas that underpin media messages. For example, one can ask:

• Who benefits from this?
• Who is it harmful to?
• What can we do to make a positive change?
• Where is there most need for this?
• Where in the world would this be a problem?
• When is this acceptable / unacceptable?
• Why should people know about this?
• How do we know the truth about this?
• How can we change this for our good?

The perspective of critical information literacy challenges the traditional conceptions of good and bad information, and compels students to ask not only if information is reliable, truthful and trustworthy, but also what or whose cause it serves, the context in which it arose, and who may be disadvantaged by it.

Major finding

Our investigation revealed that there seems to be evidence of growing awareness among staff (academics and librarians) of the need to develop critical skills among students at least at the institutions of the authors of this paper. In some universities there is already successful practice in imparting critical skills. There is considerable room for improvement to respond to complications and challenges posed by large amounts of mis-information, disinformation and mal-information. Thus introducing and implementing Process Improvement Initiatives needs to be formalized and monitored. Nowadays due to the ease and speed with which news and information are shared using new technologies and social media. This need is becoming increasingly pressing. Strategies and practices for developing critical thinking and critical literacy in learners seem to be either absent, nebulous or sporadic. Most Higher Education institutions have no dedicated units/modules but some aspects are dispersed across various modules in the curricula. We propose that whenever new programmes of study (diplomas, degrees, masters or doctoral) are introduced or revalidated dedicated modules (or part of existing modules as is the example implemented at the ATEI (see 5. 2) on Critical Literacy be developed and introduced.

Recommendation

The challenges posed by the proliferation of technologies, platforms and media through which information in multiple formats is created, propagated, and shared, exacerbate an already difficult problem. It is thus imperative for everybody, but for educators in particular, to support the development of critical thinking skills in their students. Researchers, students, academics and scientists in general need to develop critical literacy skills and awareness of the moral and ethical principles that should govern their research journey, and the way the use other researchers’ work. Critical thinking is one of the cognitive skills proposed by Benjamin Bloom in his taxonomy which he developed in 1956. It has been used extensively by educators to classify learning objectives, and as a tool for assessing outcomes. Subsequent extensions, updates, enhancements, and implementations to specific knowledge domains, have been proposed by many researchers and educators over the years.