http://www.factcheckingday.com/

Library at the Poynter Institute photo credit: Tom Cawthon

Many of us in AISL have shared our lessons and experiences about how we are addressing research and information literacy in the face of the fake news media buzz. I wanted to revisit the topic again because of the ongoing development of this story. I want to reiterate that I see it as an opportunity for librarians demonstrate leadership as information literacy experts and bridge the gap of media studies that is often lacking at the secondary level.

With the recent examples of fake news that has been revealed the term is being thrown around casually in the media. I fear we may be too cavalier in its use. Again this gives us a strong reason to continue to work with teachers to teach source evaluation critically. There have been cases of politicians, talk radio hosts, and news/opinion shows crying out fake news when they dislike a news story. So just as we teach students to affirm the credibility of sources we also must teach students to discredit claims of fake news that are actually real. There has been an undermining of trust in many of our traditional media sources, but if we teach students healthy skepticism and give them the tools of critical analysis they will be empowered to make informed decisions and not take any statement or story at face value. Since my last post, “Librarians Being Proactive in “Post-truth” World” and David Wee’s follow up resource list post I have continued to follow and collect resources in this ongoing focus on fake news.

Through a triangulation of the many resources one organization appears frequently. Many articles point to Politfact.org operated by the Tampa Bay Times which has received a Pulitzer prize for its work on fact-checking U.S. politics. The common denominator to Politifact and the Tampa Bay Times is the Poynter Institute which is a worldwide leader in media studies and educating professional reporters which also happens to be in my backyard of St. Petersburg, FL. Recently, Facebook has turned to the Poynter Institute for consultation on addressing fake news in social media. With this world renowned resource in my hometown I could not help but reach out to them to see if some of their expertise could be useful to secondary education.

I reached out to some of the professors and affiliates at Poynter and several responded. Through email they shared that many of them had been thinking about how some of their work could reach a younger audience since most of their work is with working reporters or college students studying journalism. I was then able to meet Alexios Mantzarlis because he was actively working on a lesson on fact-checking to share with high school level students. I was excited to share how at the secondary level many librarians are teaching about source credibility and fact-checking since there are not mainstream media classes at the high school level. Alexios Mantzarlis’s expertise is in international fact-checking. He informed me that he and other professional fact-checkers along with the following organizations from around the world including PolitiFact, Channel 4, Chequeado, Pagella Politica, the American Press Institute are organizing an International Fact-Checking Day to be on April 2nd, 2017. I wanted to share the outline of the day since it pertains to many of the conversations we have had about teaching information literacy. Here is an overview of the day:

This is a great way to outreach with your teachers to continue to teach research skills. Since this has a global perspective the day also fits with global studies and Model United Nations programs at your school. I am constantly looking for ways to collaborate with my faculty and a sanctioned day like International Fact-Check Day adds credibility to my outreach. The international fact check day website is now live at http://www.factcheckingday.com/.