Media Literacy Skill: Understanding How You Might Be Fooled
Understanding How You Might Be Fooled
Be prepared to use your media literacy skills when you encounter online information designed to fool you. Bad actors spread fake news and misinformation using methods such as:
- impersonation with fake social media accounts
- emotional manipulation
- polarization through political beliefs
- conspiracy theories
- discrediting the messenger
- trolling or provoking reactions
Games
Develop your media literacy skills by playing the role of a fake news creator in these games:
- Bad News GameSpread fake news in social media posts and gain as many followers as you can by learning and using the same techniques bad actors use to spread misinformation.
DROG. (2017, November). Bad News. https://www.getbadnews.com/books/english/
- Cranky UnclePretend to be just like your cranky uncle who spreads fake news about science while learning how to identify the misinformation techniques he uses.
Cook, J. (2020, December). Cranky Uncle. https://crankyuncle.com/game/
Videos
Info Interventions.. (2021, October 6). Prebunking Manipulation Techniques: Emotional Language. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/qE8Q6Fj_2R
- Inoculation Science VideosInoculation Science created a series of short videos designed to inoculate you against misinformation by exposing you to the techniques used to create it: emotional language, incoherence, false dichotomy, scapegoating, and ad hominem attack.
Information in this section:
Goodsett, M. & Meszaros, E. (2022, October 31). Debunking and prebunking: Strategies for librarians to combat misinformation. [Webinar]. Infobase. https://youtu.be/HIrWq-Vt05s