MOTIVATION

The COVID-19 pandemic situation highlighted the problem of fake and misleading news sources, especially within the context of online social networks. While using misinformation strategically is not new to social and political discourse, the complexity of the Internet media environment has increased the difficulty of evaluating information quality. This course will examine the phenomenon of “fake news” from sociological and historical perspectives, and will explore analytical strategies for evaluating and verifying media sources.

METHOD

Each day, the instructor will pose a question related to the course materials assigned. Trainees will discuss it in groups and prepare a short response, which will be discussed during the workshops [afternoons] to help direct and focus the course discussions. Trainees should also include any questions they have about the daily’s reading in these responses.

This class is conducted in a workshop format and contains a large discussion component. Attendance and participation is therefore critical to success in the course. Attendance will be taken at each class.

OUTCOMES

Upon successful completion of this course, trainees will be able to identify sources of false or misleading information on a variety of media platforms, evaluate news and other information outlets for bias, verify information claims using online tools and describe how news items are created and disseminated across different types of media and social networks