Month: January 2021

No Fake News here!

Yeah, right.

Maybe it’s ALL Fake News here …

Anyway, we all know what Fake News is. It’s the information you get that isn’t true, but it sounds so absurd, you think it’s true.

Some of you do.

The problem is, Fake News is everywhere.

For example, go stand in the line at the supermarket. No, the Fake News is not coming from the customers or the store workers. It’s coming from the scandalous newspapers you can read because they’re on a stand next to the checkout line.

For example, the National Enquirer is well known to be the King (or Queen or President) of Fake News. So, for the first time in my old life, I bought one. Secretly. I paid cash, so they can’t trace the National Enquirer to me.

Anyway, I read today that you can SWEAR YOURSELF INTO SHAPE!

That’s what it said in this week’s Enquirer. That if you swear out loud while playing basketball, you can perform better, run faster, score more points. (Maybe that’s because the person who’s guarding you is surprised to hear you cussing so much.)

Anyway, the National Enquirer is not the only Fake News source.

There are some TV networks that seem to specialize in Fake News.

And, there’s always Facebook.

Some people don’t take a newspaper, so they just believe everything they read on Facebook. It’s their only source of news, so it has to be true. (I didn’t say these are smart people.)

We can’t blame Facebook, exactly. It’s the writers who send in Fake
Source…

By DAVID CHAUVIN //

Like millions of Americans, I paused my normal routine Jan. 20 to watch the swearing-in of President Joe Biden. And like so many Americans, I was struck by the unusual circumstances surrounding the event.

The absence of crowds. The preponderance of facemasks. The manual disinfecting of the lectern between speakers. And of course, the throngs of National Guard soldiers – a stark reminder that only two weeks prior, those same U.S. Capitol steps were the site of a domestic terrorist attack, sure to live on as one of the saddest days in our nation’s history.

The inaugurations of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were rooted in over two centuries of tradition – but completely unique to this moment in history.

One part of the event seemed at least comfortably familiar (and no, I’m not talking about the Bernie memes). Joe Biden’s inaugural speech was befitting a politician that built his successful presidential campaign on a promise to return to “normalcy.”

President Biden’s speech struck a familiar balance of optimism and pragmatism, celebration and portents to the challenges ahead. A few lines, however, stood out – and I’ve been thinking a lot about what they mean for our industry and our responsibility as communication professionals.

David Chauvin: Fake punt.

The president
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PANDEMONIUM – Amid the sprawling fields of rocky terrain, with few distinguishing landmarks or features, there sits a massive stone complex, equivalent to the great fortresses of old. The exact features are tough to make out due to the haze, smoke and the interplay of fiery light and excessive darkness. It is here that we at Totally Not Fake News came to speak to the apparent power behind all the pratfalls that keep bedeviling the Texans as of late.

“Funny that you used that word,” noted our host, Lucifer. “I don’t know if I would quite say that, but ok, I get the literary turn of phrase.” Despite our protests that we hadn’t even thought of our writing, Lucifer chuckled “Don’t worry, it will be ok. I won’t sue for libel just because you went with the unintentional pun.”

Source…

MANHATTAN, Kan. (KSNT) – Your phone rings with a notification. You immediately grab it, consuming more information.

This repeatedly occurs throughout our day, constantly causing us to ask ourselves, “Is this true?”

“That becomes taxing itself because you are playing the security, the filter, for yourself, and then you get tired and eventually you start to pull back or become exhausted with informational overload,” said Tony Kubina, licensed clinical psychotherapist for Ascension Via Christi in Manhattan.

Discovering if this post, article, email or other source is truly fact or fiction can be difficult. According to a 2019 study from Ipsos, 86% of online users admitted to falling for fake news.

Cubina recommended being critical of all the information you see, thinking ‘Am I or the source of the information biased in any way?’ or ‘Is this moreso opinion compared to fact?’

“If you look at that information less skeptically it means you’re really, really prone to having that misinformation kind of sink in and end up simply affirming something that may not be true,” said Dr. Michael Young, head of Kansas State University’s Department of Psychological Sciences.

If you continue to do this, Young said false information can lead to real consequences, such as on your career, physical or mental health, or loved ones and our country as a whole.

“It’s not just our personal wellbeing but it affects our relationships with others when I start believing things that are different from you,” Young said. “Then I start thinking that
Source…

A recent study by the Pew Research Center found 43% of American adults got their political news from internet-based sources, 18% from social media.

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In the school library that I manage, I am trying to ensure students ages 11–19 are aware of the scourge that is “fake news”. Don’t get me wrong, students are aware of it, but they aren’t necessarily tuned in to how dangerous it can be, especially in today’s fragmented media landscape.

I was recently interviewed by the great Amy Hermon for the School Librarians United podcast and she asked why I decided to help students fight this problem. I think it’s one of the most important things that anyone in an educational position should be doing. History has become untethered, reality no longer a tangible object we can call upon to keep ourselves focused, calm and reasonable. We’ve seen this with the Capitol attacks, we’ve seen it with the rise of Q, and it’s only going to get worse.