Information literacy and fake news: How the field of librarianship can help combat the epidemic of fake news

This paper studies how the field of librarianship can help counteract the phenomenon of fake news and misinformation. A literature review was conducted to identify the current themes, patterns, correlations and gaps within the existing literature on fake news, information literacy and librarianship. Findings centre on defining fake news, analysing contemporary and emerging information literacy frameworks, and outlining the current efforts and initiatives exercised by libraries to refute the spread of fake news and educate communities on how to navigate through an era of untruth and disinformation. The paper outlines effective initiatives developed by those within the Library and Information Systems (LIS) profession while highlighting considerations and recommendations as to how librarians can continue to enhance their role in the digital age and make successful contributions to the professional field.     

Flagging fake news on social media: An experimental study of media consumers' identification of fake news

Policymakers are taking action to protect their citizens and democratic systems from online misinformation. However, media consumers usually have a hard time differentiating misinformation from authentic information. There are two explanations for this difficulty, namely lazy reasoning and motivated reasoning. While lazy reasoning suggests that people may feel reluctant to conduct critical reasoning when consuming online information, the motivated reasoning theory points out that individuals are also thinking in alignment with their identities and established viewpoints. A proposed approach to address this issue is adding fact-checking flags in the hope that flags could alert people to information falsehoods and stimulate critical thinking. This study examines the impact of fact-checking flags on media consumers' identification of fake news. Conducting an experiment (n = 717) on Amazon Mechanical Turk, the study finds that experimental participants with different political backgrounds depend heavily on flag-checking results provided by flags. Flags are powerful to influence people's judgments in a way that participants have blind beliefs in flags even if the flag assessments are inaccurate. Furthermore, the study's results indicate that flag assessments made by professional fact-checkers or crowdsourcing are equally influential in shaping participants' identification. These observations provide public and private leaders with suggestions that fact-checking flags can significantly affect media consumers' identification of fake news. However, flags appear to have little ability to promote critical thinking in this experiment.     

Academic library guides for tackling fake news: A content analysis

Built on a pilot study, this study examined how librarians understand fake news and the specific methods or strategies they suggest for detecting fake news by analyzing their guides from academic libraries. A content analysis regarding a total of 21 institutional guides was conducted. The major findings include the following: 1) in the librarians' guides stating their definition of fake news, the two elements of falsity and the intention to mislead were explicitly stated. The other element of bias, however, was presented in only some guides. 2) The sub-elements of clickbait, a decontextualized content and omitted information were inconsistently or barely presented across these guides. 3) Only two institutional libraries put forth the notion of fact in relation to fake news in their guides. 4) All of the guides suggested checklist approaches to detecting fake news or evaluating news sources. Finally, 5) librarians acknowledge the influence of human biases on consuming news. However, psychological factors are minimally presented in most of the guides. This study provides a few suggestions. First, librarians must further clarify the term fake news so that it reflects its multiple layers. Second, librarians must incorporate new strategies, such as lateral reading and click restraints, in combination with a few prioritized elements of a checklist into their guides regarding detecting fake news. Finally, librarians must pay attention to psychological factors more when interpreting facts in their strategies about news sources and fake news.     

Fake news alerts: Teaching news literacy skills in a meme world

ABSTRACT

Thirty years ago, fake news was resigned to tabloids at the grocery store. Now, fake news is often more convincing than real news. Many library users lack the appropriate skills to discern between what is real and what is not, and many more get their information from social media memes. When memes are more effective than actual news, what can librarians do to teach information literacy? Librarians can use memes to promote information literacy; they can even create their own!     

Case-based,problem-based learning: Information literacy for the real world

Case-based, problem-based learning (CBPBL) is a student-centered approach that uses tightly focused minicases to help students demonstrate their ability to identify their information needs. It has been used successfully in science and medical learning, and lends itself easily to helping students develop the critical thinking skills that lead to information literacy. In this approach, after students are provided with a minicase, they control the chalkboard and direct their own learning by initiating the topics and setting the agenda that will lead to solving the case. The instructor's task is to serve as a facilitator, asking questions only when it serves to help clarify students' thinking, and guiding group processes when necessary.     

Focus on the facts: A news and information literacy instructional program

ABSTRACT

This article provides an overview of the “fake news” issue and places it in the context of information literacy instruction for college students. In 2017, the faculty librarians at a large state college in Florida developed a news literacy instruction program that included instructional faculty outreach, lesson plans for one-shot information literacy instruction sessions, lessons assignments for one-credit information literacy classes, and learning objects in a LibGuide that can be used by students or embedded by faculty into courses across the disciplines.     

《溥仪老照片》真伪鉴定记

2007年3月,再次与"孔夫子旧书网"海外网友、比利时华侨梁宋生(昵称)先生在网上交易老北京史料.这虽是以万元为单位的网上交易,但梁先生的信誉是长期积累的硕果,毋庸质疑.     

中国经济新闻的话语迷思——以房产新闻为例

新闻叙事话语本身存在着极大的"合理想象"空间,这种经过"合理想象"而形成、强化的迷思往往被人们当作常识接受.经济新闻以系统化、学科化的"客观"描述把资本的权力化装成科学规律的自然结果.房产新闻顺应了这种逻辑,暗含着发展与投资的迷思.对迷思进行分析、反思与还原虽然看来是不识时宜的但却又是十分必要的.     

A quasi experiment on how the field of librarianship can help in combating fake news

This study experimented how fake news could be combated through social media literacy skills training. A quasi-experiment in one public university's library was conducted and 470 participants were randomly split into equal parts to form a control and experiment group. The respondents in the experiment group were exposed to 8 weeks of training to improve their social media literacy skills to fight fake news. We realised that social media literacy skills training is effective in increasing social media knowledge, users' recognition of fake news, tendency to verify information and reduce the inclination to share false news. Implications for research and practice were discussed.     

Measuring the effect of political alignment,platforms, and fake news consumption on voter concern for election processes

Fake news, propagated on social media platforms, is regularly used as a tool to influence political beliefs. In this paper, we investigate the impact of fake news on perceptions of election processes by drawing on the theory of motivated reasoning. We use survey data on partisan alignment, news consumption habits, and voting methods collected before and after the 2020 United States general election. Our pre-election results indicated that political alignment and the type of news a voter consumes influences their trust perceptions of election processes. These findings were replicated in the post-election results. We also found that Facebook users were more likely to consume fake and hyper-partisan news, whereas people who directly navigate to news websites consume primarily mainstream news sources. Implications for research and policy are discussed along with opportunities for future research on the impacts of fake news.     

Engagement with news on Twitter: insights from Australia and Korea

ABSTRACT

This study examines the patterns of news engagement among news consumers with different political affiliation and cultural background. We use computational methods and data from Twitter in a cross-country comparison of engagement with six online news sources in Australia and South Korea. For our analysis, we used a subset of Twitter users who retweeted at least one political story during the period of collection, and for whom we were able to predict political affiliation using correspondence analysis and data on Twitter follower ties to politicians. We find that right-wing Australian retweeters are more intense in their news engagement, compared with their left-wing counterparts, whereas in South Korea it was the opposite. Australian right-wing political retweeters have more diverse information sources, while there was no difference in information diversity between the right and left in South Korea. We discuss how the political situation in South Korea at the time of data collection may have affected our analysis. We emphasise the methodological contributions of our research and its connection to on-going research into the behavioural foundations of ‘filter bubbles’.     

Evaluating information literacy educators' practices before and after the course facilitating information literacy education: from tutor to learner-centred

Objective: The article gives an account of a study on the impact of facilitating information literacy education (FILE) on its participants, health librarians who have attended this course between 2007 and 2010. Methods: The analysis presented here is based on the first stage of the research, funded by the Higher Education Academy Information and Computer Sciences and consisting of an online survey. This survey was conducted in Autumn 2010 and examined the respondents’ examples of information literacy practice before and after FILE. Results and conclusion: Two main outcomes can be drawn from the data. First, that overall the respondents’ provision of information literacy education has shifted from a tutor‐centred approach (where the trainer decides what the learner needs) to a learner‐centred approach (where the learner decides what he/she needs). And secondly, that the impact of FILE should be seen in terms of a self‐perpetuating professional development, rather than measured in terms of specific changes that occur at set times (e.g., at the end of the course or 6 months after completion). As one FILE participant puts it: ‘When FILE ends your career as an information literacy professional starts.’     

Information literacy for the information literate: A model and case study from the Wuhan UNESCO training the trainers in information literacy program

This article draws on the authors’ experiences in providing training for information seekers worldwide, from elementary school children to business professionals. Designed for the UNESCO Training the Trainers (TTT) in Information Literacy (IL) workshop in Wuhan, China in October 2008, the material offers a practical, structured framework for creating an information literacy program for trainers that is adaptable to changing learner needs and changing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools. It includes examples and a case study using a basic course for paraprofessionals and beginning librarians. Based on input from participants at the Wuhan workshop, the article enhances the assessment portion of the presentation. The UNESCO program document listed a target audience of the less information literate ((UNESCO, 2008) Training the trainers in information literacy portal http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=25623&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html. Accessed 14.02.10). This paper, and in general the approach of the Wuhan session, focused on information literacy at an institutional rather than community level (Zhang, X. (Julia) (2009). Report of the UNESCO training-the-trainers in information literacy workshop, October 20–22, 2008, Wuhan, China. International Information & Library Review, 41(4) 273–276).     

Information literacy for the information literate: A model and case study from the Wuhan UNESCO training the trainers in information literacy program

This article draws on the authors’ experiences in providing training for information seekers worldwide, from elementary school children to business professionals. Designed for the UNESCO Training the Trainers (TTT) in Information Literacy (IL) workshop in Wuhan, China in October 2008, the material offers a practical, structured framework for creating an information literacy program for trainers that is adaptable to changing learner needs and changing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools. It includes examples and a case study using a basic course for paraprofessionals and beginning librarians. Based on input from participants at the Wuhan workshop, the article enhances the assessment portion of the presentation. The UNESCO program document listed a target audience of the less information literate ((UNESCO, 2008) Training the trainers in information literacy portal http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=25623&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html. Accessed 14.02.10). This paper, and in general the approach of the Wuhan session, focused on information literacy at an institutional rather than community level (Zhang, X. (Julia) (2009). Report of the UNESCO training-the-trainers in information literacy workshop, October 20–22, 2008, Wuhan, China. International Information & Library Review, 41(4) 273–276).     

双赢：新闻专业教学与新闻网站建设结合

新闻网站与传统大众媒介不同,对新闻专业教学实践具有特殊意义.新闻专业教擘需要拓展新的实习基地和扩大毕业生就业渠道.新闻网站也需要新闻专业教学力量加盟,为新闻网站的内容创新和业务经营献策出力.新闻网站建设和新闻专业教学要努力突破"为实习而实习"的被动状态,实现双赢新格局.     

探索构筑图书馆电子阅览室最佳模式

介绍几种电子阅览室的构筑模式,并详细论述了各种模式的特点及软件配置的原则与方法.     

Developing health information literacy: a needs analysis from the perspective of preprofessional health students

Objective:

The research identified the skills, if any, that health preprofessional students wished to develop after receiving feedback on skill gaps as well as any strategies they intended to use to address these gaps.

Methods:

A qualitative approach was used to elicit students'' reflections on building health information literacy skills. First, the students took the Research Readiness Self-Assessment instrument, which measured their health information literacy, and then they received individually tailored feedback about their scores and skill gaps. Second, students completed a post-assessment survey asking how they intended to close identified gaps in their skills on these. Three trained coders analyzed qualitative comments by 181 students and grouped them into themes relating to “what skills to improve” and “how to improve them.”

Results:

Students intended to develop library skills (64% of respondents), Internet skills (63%), and information evaluation skills (63%). Most students reported that they would use library staff members'' assistance (55%), but even more respondents (82%) planned to learn the skills by practicing on their own. Getting help from librarians was a much more popular learning strategy than getting assistance from peers (20%) or professors (17%).

Conclusions:

The study highlighted the importance of providing health preprofessional students with resources to improve skills on their own, remote access to library staff members, and instruction on the complexity of building health literacy skills, while also building relationships among students, librarians, and faculty.

Highlights

• After receiving feedback on skill gaps, most preprofessional health students intend to develop their information literacy skills.
• Some students report that a trip to the library is a barrier to using library resources.
• Students see the need to build their information evaluation skills, knowledge of citations and plagiarism, and library skills, which they differentiate from Internet skills.
• Students are more likely to identify librarians as sources for assistance in finding information than faculty or peers after receiving individual feedback explaining the role of libraries and library staff members.

Implications

• Students'' health information competencies can be built through assessment and feedback that reveals skill gaps, highlights misconceptions, and offers ideas on how to improve.
• Access to professionally designed self-study resources is needed for students who intend to develop health information competencies on their own.

     

Teaching engaged research literacy: A description and assessment of the Research Ripped from the Headlines project

Courses: This assignment can be implemented in wide-range of courses that have research-related goals at the undergraduate or master's degree level. Applicable courses include Research Methods, Capstone, Interpersonal Communication, Organizational Communication, Intercultural Communication, Health Communication, Gender, and Family Communication.

Objectives: This assignment serves to increase students’ information literacy related to research gathering, critique, analysis, and implementation. For this assignment, students will: (a) identify and examine a news article that uses research; (b) trace the origins and conduct an analysis of the research study cited in the news article or a related research study; and (c) deliver an informative discussion that explains the news article, selected research study, and connect their analysis to research and research methodology principles. In all, this assignment improves students' media literacy related to social media and technology, and increases student affect for research practices. Finally, this assignment describes one model of using curriculum assessment to generate innovative pedagogical opportunities.