This guide helps users investigate misleading and viral content, memes, and trolling practices online. Packed with data visualizations, this free manual highlights a series of research protocols, or “recipes,” which can be used to trace trolling practices—the ways false viral news and memes circulate online and the commercial underpinnings of problematic content.
Type of Material:
Workshop and Training Material
Recommended Uses:
Instructors can use one of the "recipes" of fake news stories as a basis for learners to identiy the theme, likely groups who share the stories, and path of circulation. Learners can then compare stories in terms of these three characteristics. This kind of activity can be introduced in class, done as homework, and compared online or as a follow-up in-class activity.
Technical Requirements:
Works across browsers.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
Users will be able to:
Identify fake news
Trace fake news
Explore memes and trolling
Target Student Population:
High School, College General Ed, College Lower Division, College Upper Division, Graduate School, Professional
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
basic ICT literacy skills
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
The content is well-researched, accurate and current. It also has an international scope, which broadens its value. Each theme is introduced and explained, followed by "recipe" activities, which have clear directions and flowchart/statistical graphics; icons further clarify aspects of the "recipes." The material is self-contained, although it also links to useful data visualization tools. Content is appropriately attributed. This source can be used in several ways: for journalism, statistics, social sciences, etc.
Concerns:
Some links do not work.
This resource is now quite dated and needs to be updated
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
The learning objectives are specific, and align with ICT literacy standards. The activities build sequentially on each other, but do not HAVE to. Much information is packed into this source, but it is easy to digest, particularly because of the flowcharts and sample data visualizations. The "recipes" facilitate instructor-designed assignments, and the content lends itself to authentic use.
Concerns:
To take full advantage of the activities, the user should know some statistics and data visualization methods.
This ressource is useful, but there is a substantial amount of text and images that may overwhelm the user.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
This material can be used independently. As an ebook, it is very easy to navigate, and requires little technical expertise (although if users have data visualization tools, they can explore the issues very deeply). The layout is professional and very eye-catching. The document itself is not interactive, but the activities themselves are very engaging. No help feature is needed.
Concerns:
The images are not ADA-compliant.
Creative Commons:
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