Misinformation and fake news have become the clarion call in these politically charged times, but this is not a new topic. Journalists have been writing pieces from one point-of-view or creating a bias in a particular story to increase readership and ratings for as long as there has been news in print. Thomas Jefferson was credited as the first politician in the U.S. to use muckraking as a political tool, this method of discrediting your opponent has resurfaced lately. So, it is important that we give students the tools to cull through the information available online and in print to find reliable sources.
During a Willows faculty meeting in January, I spoke to the faculty about the proliferation of fake news and offered them some news literacy tools that they could share with the students.
The Washington Post and Reuters posted an article about Canadians heading to the Women’s March in the U.S. that were stopped by U.S. border patrol guards and told to turn back. Each article included an interview of one person (Sasha Dyck), who described the experience. It was the same person interviewed in the two newspapers. So, I wondered, “Why is there only one person being interviewed? Did one news source write the article and the other source copy the information? Was there only one person turned away at the border, or were more people turned away? Can I find more information in other articles?”
I searched for other articles about Canadians being stopped at the U.S. border because they wanted to attend the Women’s March, and found Joe Kroese, and Joseph Decunha were also turned away according to a BBC News article. Finally, I looked on the fact-checking site Snopes.com to see if there was any information about this incident. Snopes.com had an article about the incident that listed four people who had been turned away at the same border crossing. Was there one overzealous border guard on duty?
These are the steps I used to check the authenticity of my source:
- Focus on finding good resources (The Washington Post and Reuters are good resources)
- Form questions about the information in the resources
- Look up other resources to determine the validity of the original source
- Use a fact-checking site to evaluate the information
Fact Checking Sites
Fact Check.Org: A Project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center
Fact-Checking – Duke Reporters’ Lab Duke University’s database of global fact checking sites
Snopes.Com The definitive Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation
Resources:
Dyck, Sasha. “Sasha Dyck, Second from Left, Who Said He Was Was Turned Away at U.S. Border on Thursday, Instead, He Participated in Women’s March in Montreal with Family and Friends.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 21 Jan. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/local/canadian-traveling-to-womens-march-said-he-was-turned-away-at-the-us-border/2017/01/21/79e4b4ee-dff9-11e6-918c-99ede3c8cafa_story.html?utm_term=.17b93dc46a69. Accessed 2 Mar. 2017.
Erickson, Amanda. “U.S. Border Agents Turned Away Canadians Hoping to Come to the Women’s March.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 21 Jan. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/01/21/u-s-border-agents-turned-away-canadians-hoping-to-come-to-the-womens-march/?utm_term=.592322079c09. Accessed 3 Mar. 2017.
Mann, Helen. “’We Didn’t Have Anything to Hide’: Canadian Heading to Women’s March Refused Entry to U.S.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 22 Jan. 2017, www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-friday-edition-1.3944955/we-didn-t-have-anything-to-hide-canadian-heading-to-women-s-march-refused-entry-to-u-s-1.3944962. Accessed 3 Mar. 2017.
Palma, Bethania. “Canadians Reportedly Turned Away from U.S. Border on Inauguration Day.” Snopes.com, Snopes, 25 Jan. 2017, www.snopes.com/2017/01/24/canadians-border-inauguration-day/. Accessed 3 Mar. 2017.
“Protesters from Canada, UK, ‘Turned Away at US Border’.” BBC News, BBC, 21 Jan. 2017, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38694437. Accessed 3 Mar. 2017.
Sharp, Alastair. “Canadians Traveling to Inauguration Turned Away at U.S. Border.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 20 Jan. 2017, www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-inauguration-canada-idUSKBN1542UD. Accessed 3 Mar. 2017.