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Fake News Workshop

This guide was created to house resources related to the Fake News Workshop that took place in April 2017, sponsored by the Elihu Burritt Library and the CCSU Journalism Department.

Fake News Definitions

Biased News: A term that is often used to label news that provides information someone disagrees with. However, bias in news can refer to numerous scenarios where a journalist is gearing their work towards favoring a particular group or world view. This can be political, but there can also be a commerical bias, a bias towards particular voices, or even a bias towards "false balance."

 

Confirmation Bias: our tendency to seek, interpret, and recall information or evidence in such a way that it confirms that which we already believe to be true. For example, when we want to know if wine is good for us, we likely search “wine good for you” rather than “wine bad for you,” ensuring that the results we get are skewed toward what we would like to be true.

 

Fake News: Stories that appear to be real news but are 100 percent false. The stories are intentionally fabricated information rather than a mistake or error that may end up in an otherwise accurate news story.

 

Fallacies: a failure in reasoning, or a mistaken belief. There are many different types of fallacies. A false dichotomy is one example. In argument, it is when we present an opponent with only two options, e.g. if you care this much about the treatment of animals, you must hate people.

 

Filter Bubble: the resulting limited, likely biased view of the world around us that results from only being exposed to certain ideas, people, customs, concerns, etc., especially online via social media.

 

Misleading News: news that may contain some accurate information but that may create confusion or lead a reader towards a false conclusion.

 

Opinion: statements that may or may not be based on fact but convey judgment or emotion rather than facts. For example, "That politician is a horrible person" is an opinion, whereas "That politician voted against protecting wildlife" may be a fact that leads a person to that opinion.

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