Fact-finding these days can be likened to excavating your cat’s litter box: Just when you think you got it all, a bit of digging reveals more. The private ASJA Forum discussion on fake news and journalism literacy brought to light how far the pendulum has swung – from one member’s observation that few if any people were aware of the late Walter Cronkite’s liberal leanings to another’s commentary on how fake news writer Paul Horner cashed in by spreading lies during the Trump campaign. But all is not lost; bastions of solid information still can be found in such resources as Truth, Truthiness, Triangulation: A News Literacy Toolkit for a “Post-Truth” World, a comprehensive roundup of fact-finding tips and sources from School Library Journal.
But what, exactly, is “post-truth?” Declared as the 2016 international word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries post-truth is defined by them as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” It can be gradual, as when Adolph Hitler declared that all Jews should wear yellow stars for no logical reason, culminating in the extermination of over 6 million Jews, Catholics, dissidents and other minorities. Or more recently, when the Syrian Arab Republic repressed civilian resistance to mass atrocities and genocide, resulting in over 60,000 deaths and tsunami of refugees in Europe and elsewhere. Regardless, post-truth can have disastrous consequences.
One of the most effective ways of combatting post-truth is triangulation; that is, cross-verification of various sources “by using several research methods and analyzing and examining multiple perspectives…in the hope that diverse viewpoints will shed greater light on a topic,” states the School Library Journal article.
In the Forum discussion, member Nancy Peske also came up with several practical suggestions:
- Share the list of fake news sites with colleagues and others.
- Explain that journalists should adhere to certain standards of reporting. Your career can be destroyed if you are sloppy. Real newspapers hire fact-checkers and copyeditors, because language can mislead the reader.
- Encourage others to follow your lead in subscribing to more news sites with standards.
- Encourage people on the opposing side to explain what news sources they use and why. Listen. Talk about how the top brass gets to say “yay” or “nay” on articles.
- Don’t share articles you haven’t read. Comment on what you disagree with when you do post–“This is a great article on X but I do think the headline is misleading” or some such.
- People love to share their insights on social media. Invite people who have something different to add–thank them for saying something interesting that came out of their own research and experience.
“And here’s a big one,” she concludes. “Recognize that not all people have the time or motivation to read articles. The written word is their second language; visual images are their primary one. We who learn through reading, who think in words, are not the norm anymore.”
But we can write in short, easily digestible chunks, creating clear and vivid word pictures to appeal to all types of learners — visual, auditory, read-write and kinesthetic. For example, visual learners tend to use words and phrases that evoke images and learn by seeing, while auditory learners prefer to have things explained to them through listening, verbalizing and doing and solving real-life problems. Kinesthetic learners present more of a combo of hands-on, trial and error, seeing and visualizing. A TEDEd video by ASJA member Damon Brown also offers explanations as well as strategies for analyzing news sources that might be helpful in framing context for the various types. While it may require some extra effort, the payoff may be worth it in reaching a wider base of potential readers.
Good luck finding the scoop and may all your nuggets contain the sweet smell of the truth and objectivity!