“A democracy requires open access to ideas. It requires a willingness to struggle and learn, to question our own suppositions and biases, to open ourselves as citizens, and a nation, to a world of books and thought. If we become a country of superficiality and easy answers based on assumptions and not one steeped in reason and critical learning, we will have lost the foundation of our founding and all that has allowed our nation to grow into our modern United States.”
― Dan Rather, What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism
This guide will help you navigate through the many and varied news articles that now populate our news feeds, blogs, Facebook and other social media sites.
Is it credible? Is it disinformation? Is it click bait? Check it out before you post!
Selected Books
The books listed here are available at Young Library at the University of Kentucky as indicated. However, these can most likely be found in many public or academic libraries and all three are available at Amazon.
Blur by Blur provides a road map, or more specifically, reveals the craft that has been used in newsrooms by the very best journalists for getting at the truth. In an age when the line between citizen and journalist is becoming increasingly unclear, Blur is a crucial guide for those who want to know what's true.
UnSpun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation by Written by Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the founders of the acclaimed website FactCheck.org, unSpun reveals the secrets of separating facts from disinformation, such as: the warning signs of spin, hype, and bogus news; common tricks used to deceive us; how to find trustworthy and objective sources of information
A Field Guide to Lies by We need to think critically about the words and numbers we encounter if we want to be successful at work, at play, and in making the most of our lives, checking plausibility and reasoning--not passively accepting information, repeating it, and making decisions based on it.
This paper argues that the essence of disinformation is the intent to deceive. While such an intent is difficult to prove, it can be inferred by reference to three key criteria, termed the “ABC approach”. These criteria are: the accuracy of factual statements, balance in reporting and the credibility of the sources chosen.
