Look twice
Fake news is bad news Karen Kimura describes GDST’s approach to the word of the year and other news stories
We are often told ‘don’t believe everything you read’. The alternative news site Vice recently noted that “Ever since a billionaire TV celebrity who cannot seem to say three true things in a row became president, the news has become a parody of itself, with even 100-percent true stories carrying a whiff of unreality.” ‘Post-truth’ was declared word of the year in 2016 by Oxford Dictionaries, reflecting what it called a highly charged political twelve months in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than emotional appeals. Fake news might seem like a recent phenomenon, given the prominence of the expression in the media and in conversations, but it goes back in time: Holocaust denial, climate change denial, flat-earthers. Even in fiction, Rita Skeeter takes poetic licence to the max, as a reporter for The Daily Prophet in the Harry Potter series. In the past, when you needed information, you consulted an encyclopaedia. You could trust that the information was thoroughly researched, double-checked and true. Now, young people go to social media or news websites to find out what is happening in the world. Many students are shocked to realise that the information hasn’t been through the same rigorous process. As Andreas Schleicher, Education Director for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
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(OECD), notes, “Distinguishing what is true from what is not true is a critical judgement.” At the Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST), we want to make sure that in today’s ‘fake news’ world, our girls can use critical thinking skills to understand the media, and also understand why this skill is important from a careers and commercial awareness perspective. We have created a workshop on ‘understanding the media’ as part of our unique CareerStart programme to address this. The first question we ask students is ‘why are we seeing an increased level of misinformation?’ Discerning this is a key part of the process. Sometimes it is down to speed. In a 24-hour news environment there is a lot of pressure to be first with key details of breaking news events. Even respected news organisations can get it wrong. Some outlets are dependent on advertising revenue, writing content or headlines to get clicks or BTL (‘below the line’) comments. Sensationalism and half-truths can be more effective than thorough research in this context. Students participating in workshops were surprised to discover that the journalist doesn’t usually write the headline, and is often frustrated about what the sub-editor picks out as the key point. Journalists at some publications are incentivised or judged by
