KS3 Media Studies - How fake news is presented

This film is from the series Making the News available on BBC Teach.

Tina Daheley looks at what fake news is and gives students a guide to determining which stories are fake and which can be relied on.

She talks to Megha Mohan, a senior broadcast journalist from BBC News, who helps her separate genuine and fake news.

They show how deliberately misleading stories are often presented as real news stories and unpick some of the reasons why fake news exists.

The main drivers of money-making, influencing readers’ opinions and satire are explored with a look at stories about high profile people.

Several examples of stories that appear to be from trusted sources are shown and the problems with these stories are discussed.

They then look at some of the fake news stories that appeared around the time of the 2016 US presidential election campaign that were shared on social media.

They discuss how features of genuine news stories are used in fake news, such as headlines, photos, and the names of news providers.

Advice is given about searching online for the news providers and finding an example of the same news story on a credible news site.

Fake news can be convincing and Daheley explores how we can avoid being lured in by false stories.

A group of young people are shown a sequence of fake and real news stories and they attempt to sort them.

They discuss the importance of logos, trusted news sources, bias and language.

The young people also talk about the trustworthiness of news stories and fact checking and how the use of quotations and opinions can make a story seem more convincing.

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