How to Define Fake News, Identify it, and Analyze its Proliferation

Fake News is a controversial term familiar to most Americans, but what exactly does it refer to? Image source: Stanford University News The term "fake news" is a widespread and politically charged buzzword, with its meaning often unclear. Most would probably be most familiar with the words "fake news" from the 2016 U.S. election, where …

What does NAMLE stand for?

“The NAMLE vision is to help individuals of all ages develop the habits of inquiry and skills of expression that they need to be critical thinkers, effective communicators, and active citizens in today’s world”

If we were Media Literate, Would the Earth be Flat?

Have you ever wondered why the most unbelievable conspiracy theories tend to have the largest followings? Conventional wisdom would have you think that the more outlandish the conspiracy theory is the less traction and follower commitment it would receive, but when one thinks of the size of the flat earth movement, this notion seems to …

Anatomy of the Alt-Right Pipeline

How YouTube's algorithms have led unsuspecting viewers into the depths of extreme conservatism, and why the problem won't be going away anytime soon "day 12/365" by Shehan Peruma is licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license. For the companies behind your favorite social media sights, engagement is currency; hence, their algorithms are designed to encourage …

Algorithmic Biases

An algorithm is a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem solving operations. For example, if you were to follow the algorithm to create brownies from a box mix, you would follow the three to five step process described on the back of the box. Algorithms are everywhere as …

Editorial: What is Media Literacy and How Does it Affect Me?

In the United States of America, citizens live under freedom of press; a law which gives every individual the right to post or publish anything they’d like, true or false. While this opens countless opportunities for learning, discovery, and creativity, it allows the truth to become somewhat abstract. Where is my information coming from? What …

Detecting Propaganda

from Wikipedia.com Propaganda in the news is nothing new. For years, people have used propaganda to persuade and manipulate viewers into believing and supporting many different causes, most of the time involving enlisting in a war. But what is propaganda? Propaganda is defined as “information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote …

Media Ecosystems: How Bias in the Media Creates Closed Circuits

The days of Walter Cronkite are over. No longer is there a "most trusted man in America," or any one evening news channel that the whole of the country watches after dinner. Instead, there is now an almost unlimited number of sources a person can go to for their news, at any time of day. …