UNIT 8

FACT-CHECKING AS A GLOBAL TREND

Ex. 1. Watch video: 

1. Fact checking online is more important than ever - https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=Ryjpu-NWYm8&t=54s
2. Olga Yurkova: Inside the fight against Russia's fake news empire - https://
www.ted.com/talks/olga_yurkova_inside_the_fight_against_russia_s_fake_news_empire
3. Linda Beck: Fact Checking in a Fast-Paced Social Media Driven World - https://www.t-
ed.com/talks/linda_beck_fact_checking_in_a_fast_paced_social_media_driven_world
Ex. 2. Прослухати епізоди подкасту «Пост правди» журналу «Куншт»  (один на вибір; за
бажанням – всі)
1. ХІІ. Медіаграмотність: Джексонівка, місінформація, фінансування телеканалів
https://post-pravdy.simplecast.com/episodes/medialiteracy

2. VIII. Журналістські стандарти: кульові блискавки, таблоїди, Ольга Броварець

https://post-pravdy.simplecast.com/episodes/viii

3. II. Емоції та фейки: розп'ятий хлопчик, Біл Гейтс, Get bad news
https://post-pravdy.simplecast.com/episodes/ii-get-bad-news

4. III. Глибинні фейки: Барак Обама, Сальвадор Далі, Recycle-GAN

https://post-pravdy.simplecast.com/episodes/iii-recycle-gan

Ex. 3. Test your fact-checking skills

Quiz “Break-fake-news”

Ex. 4. Watch the video “Five ways to spot fake news”

Answer the questions:

1. What are the five main elements a teacher calls for checking fake news? 
1) Where is the information?
2) Does the headline sound neutral?
3) Who wrote it?
4) What are the article`s sourses?
5) Are the images accurate?
2. How do you understand the phrase "We all need to become digital detectives"? 
I believe that we should of course be careful and check all the information we
find on the Internet.
3. What characteristics of a quality news site can you name? 
There are criteria that can be useful when deciding whether a piece of informa-
tion is newsworthy: Audience. Is this particularly important/interesting to your
readers? For which part?

Influence. How many people are affected by the news? How strong?

Proximity. How close socially/geographically to the audience did the event

take place?

Freshness. Did the event happen just/recently? It's been a long time, but it just
became known about her? Surely the audience doesn't know yet?

Names. Are the newsmakers or participants of the event well-known, impor-

tant, authoritative, recognizable people?

Novelty. Has this happened before? Is the event predictable, regular?

Conflict. Is there a conflict of interest in the news? Does it evoke emotions?

Prehistory. Is this a continuation of the story we already covered? Were events

of this type news to us?
4. What is a quality title? 
An ordinary title has the correct grammatical structure and corresponds to the
content of the text, but it does not interest the reader to get to know the material
at all, and often, on the contrary, scares away due to banality and dryness.

An attractive title not only grammatically corresponds to the content of the text,
but also:

attracts the reader, but at the same time does not make loud promises;
responds to any reader's request;
makes it clear that the information read is interesting and useful;
positively contributes to site or page traffic;
Therefore, a correctly written attractive title is the key to the success of the en-
tire article, so you need to be very responsible when writing the title. There are
tons of tips on how to write a really effective headline, but not all of them are
undoubtedly the best. So which ones should you use and which ones should
you not? Let's consider the most popular 7 tips.
5. Why is the emotional neutrality of the title important? 
Because they may be mentally unstable, who may be impressed by information
even from the headline.
6. Why is it necessary to identify the author of the publication? 
Because many people can illegally steal your information and pass it off as
their own.
7. In which cases can publications be without authorship?
I don't think any, because every piece of information has to have an author to
check for identity. 
 8. Are references to sources in the article important? Why? 
I think so, because then we understand whether we need this information or not.
9. How can I verify the authenticity of the image? 
For example, I look at the watermark on the photo, this is how photographers
identify their work.
10. How can an image or photo distort the authenticity of text support?
for example, blurring of the photo, or some scratches.

Ex 5. Read this article 

Футболіст, що забив два голи збірній Росії, отримає квартиру від Зеленського

Using the recommendations of the previous task, analyze the publication. Determine if it is
true or fake. What analysis algorithm did you use? I read information on the Internet, and
I think that this may be true.

Ex. 8. Read texts

How To Recognize A Fake News Story

Fake Or Real? How To Self-Check The News And Get The Facts

The Fact Checker’s guide for detecting fake news

Create visual Fact Checker’s Guide.
List of free infographic makers 
1. Easel.ly  https://www.easel.ly/
2. Canva - https://www.canva.com/
3. Piktochart - https://piktochart.com/
4. Infogr.am - https://infogram.com/
5. Visual.ly - https://visual.ly/
6. Draw.io - https://app.diagrams.net/

Further readings: 
1. Why Do Our Brains Love Fake News?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNmwvntMF5A&ab_channel=AboveTheNoise
2. How to Spot Fake News - FactCheck.org
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkwWcHekMdo&ab_channel=FactCheck
3. Deepfakes Are Going To Wreak Havoc On Society. We Are Not Prepared.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robtoews/2020/05/25/deepfakes-are-going-to-wreak-havoc-on-
society-we-are-not-prepared/?fbclid=IwAR1x0m3quedvD3hqqJkbaeidQh16g8FT1EaUlwl-
WgiX2lTH2wjRwburuPo&sh=3e2d551f7494
4. We need to start reading past the headline, but not for the reasons you think
https://emilyrosethorne.medium.com/we-need-to-start-reading-past-the-headline-but-not-for-
the-reasons-you-think-fc64ec53f77b
5. How do I check facts on the internet?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7lAJs9r9Wk&ab_channel=UofGLibrary
6. Endless Curiosity: The Science of Fake News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIv9054dBBI&ab_channel=IndianaUniversity
7. Fake News. It's Your Fault.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRPDwSSjdOM&ab_channel=TEDxTalks
8. Cook, J., Lewandowsky, S. (2011), The Debunking Handbook. St. Lucia, Australia: Univer-
sity of Queensland. November 5. http://sks.to/debunk
9. Інструменти фактчекінгу: як професійно відрізняти брехню від правди
https://imi.org.ua/articles/instrumenti-faktchekingu-yak-profesiyno-vidriznyati-brehnyu-vid-
pravdi-i407
10. Про фактчекінг для журналістів і всіх, хто мислить критично
 https://www.ukrinform.ua/rubric-society/3157165-pro-faktceking-dla-zurnalistiv-i-vsih-hto-
mislit-kriticno.html
11. Посібник з верифікації: https://verificationhandbook.com/book_ua/

Glossary:
Backfire Effect - a backfire effect is where a correction inadvertently increases belief in, or
reliance on, misinformation relative to a pre-correction or nocorrection baseline.
Continued influence effect - the continued reliance on inaccurate information in people’s
memory and reasoning after a credible correction has been presented. 
Debunk - to show that something is less important, less good, or less true than it has been
made to appear
Fact - something that is known to have happened or to exist, especially something for
which proof exists, or about which there is information
Fact-check - to check that all the facts in a piece of writing, a news article, a speech, etc.
are correct:
Fake news - false information, often of a sensational nature, that mimics news media content.
Illusory truth effect - repeated information is more likely to be judged true than novel infor-
mation because it has become more familiar.
Infodemic – an overload of information, in which fact is hard to separate from fiction.
Myth - the generally accepted meaning of myth is of a fictitious (primitive) tale, usually in-
volving supernatural characters embodying some popular idea concerning natural or historical phe-
nomena, and often symbolizing virtues or other timeless qualities. In everyday parlance, a myth is
something invented, not true.
Myth-buster - a person, book, etc. that shows that something generally thought to be true is
not, in fact, true, or is different from how it is usually described
Myth-busting - saying or showing that something generally thought to be true is not,
in fact, true, or is different from how it is usually described