Fake News and What We Can Do about It

Civics Lesson

GRADE LEVEL: High School

What is ‘Fake News’ and How Can We Identify it on Social Media?

What is Our Role and Responsibility to Identify and Stop the Spread of Fake News?

The term “fake news” refers to misinformation that presents false, inaccurate, or intentionally misleading information in news stories, current events and other issues. Many of these stories are spread through online sites and social media platforms that deliberately cause confusion about basic facts, particularly when it comes to scientific and political news.

The ability to assess the validity of a news story is critical for making informed decisions regarding health, finances and during an election season—voting. And yet many people are lacking the skills to assess the validity of information they encounter. In a 2018–2019 study from Stanford University, with more than 3,000 high school students, the majority struggled to complete tasks related to evaluating digital news stories. For example, students couldn’t distinguish advertisements labeled “sponsored content” from a legitimate news story.

About the Lesson Plan

During this lesson students will learn about fake news, develop strategies for differentiating between inaccurate, misleading news stories and fact-based news from legitimate sources. Students are also encouraged not to use the term fake news because there are those who use the term to discredit real news stories with which they disagree.

Standard(s):

D2.Civ.10.9-12

Objective(s):

• Students will reflect on their own experiences with and preferences of their news sources.
• Students will understand what “fake news” is and identify strategies for differentiating real and fake news.
• Students will explore what can be done to be better consumers of news and what else they can do for their school, community and society about fake news.