Have you ever seen fake news online? How did you know it was fake? And what did you do about it?
Fake news is a false article that someone has produced intentionally to mislead others. It is believed much of the time, meaning millions of people may have been fooled by it. It spreads much faster than the truth and poses a serious threat to society.
There is plenty of evidence that we act on fake news. For example, in the 2016 US elections, it was found to have an impact on the way that individuals voted.
Many young people get their news via social media, and research as long ago as 2016 already found around 44 per cent of people listing Facebook as their regular source for news, and this is only likely to increase. But much of the research on fake news is focused on adults, with less known about its impact on young people.
Social media is notorious for spreading fake news, being more likely to lead to referrals to untrustworthy news when compared with other news sources. It is therefore vital to equip young people to recognise fake news.
Speaking students’ language
A key issue with teaching these skills is that many young people do not trust teachers and parents to have expertise in their online lives. They do, however, trust people they see as being similar to themselves and who work in the field, such as influencers.
Therefore, in Project Real, whose team I am a member of, we have worked with young people and influencers to co-create a range of materials to help young people develop their skills to recognise fake news. The resources are freely available online and comprise six hour-long sessions with videos and interactive activities, which can be found here.
Our materials use the UK government “SHARE” guidelines to help learners explore whether news is real or fake. This stands for “source, headline, analyse, retouched and error”.
- Source suggests that learners should look at who wrote the article, why they might have written it and whether they are trustworthy.
- Headline suggests that they should read beyond the headline to see what the article says, as headlines rarely tell the full story.
- Analyse encourages learners to critically think about the article: is it likely to be true, and what other evidence is there to support it? Independent fact-checkers can help verify information in the article.
- Retouched is linked to photo and video editing: are there any signs that the photo could have been edited, for example by blurring it? Is the photo being used elsewhere?
- Errors means looking to see the article has a phoney or lookalike URL or if there are mistakes in the spelling or grammar that may suggest it did not come from a legitimate source.
Using the SHARE checklist can help learners develop a critical awareness of online information. Our research suggests that teachers and young people found Project Real materials easy to use and engaging and that they were highly relevant, as they had been created by other young people and influencers.
If we want to increase students’ confidence and skills around fake news, we must create space for young people to share their ideas about why people would create fake news, the impact it may have - and, of course, how they can recognise it.
Yvonne Skipper is a senior education psychology lecturer at the University of Glasgow and a member of the Project Real team
