News vs. 'Fake' News

Assignment One: Comparison of Fake News Sources

In this lesson, students will compare two types of fake news. First we will watch a segment of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I will ask the class to notice what stories Jon Stewart and his crew choose to provide a parody of. We will discuss as a class some questions such as:

1) What types of stories were the most humorous?

2) Which ones were the most entertaining for you?

3) Why are these stories entertaining?

I would then pass out two sample articles from The Onion. The class would read these quietly to themselves and then break into small groups and discus the difference between these two types of ‘fake news.’ Some questions for this discussion would be:

1) What are some differences between The Onion and The Daily Show?

2) What differences are inherent in having written news and visual news?

3) What are some similarities?

My rationale for this assignment is that I believe it is important that the class understands how these ‘fake news’ sources implement their use of humor to produce news. For example, the article we read for class states how Stewart creates a montage of the term “stunned,” together with his over-exaggerated facial gestures draws attention to the fact that the official news sources depend on providing their audience with entertainment in order to increase the number of viewers. This provides an answer as to why viewers are likely to choose ‘fake news’ over ‘real news.’

Assignment two: Create a ‘Fake Newscast’

In this lesson students will use what they have learned about ‘fake news’ and apply it to creating their very own news segments. The students will be separated into small groups of three or four. The students will be given several different types of newspaper articles, all of which are hard news stories: either national or local news. From these articles they will choose one and create a skit that portrays what they have read or seen on the previous ‘fake newscasts.’ The presentation should be about 3-5 minutes and all group members must participate. They have one class period to think about and discuss what their presentation will include. The next day they will present their newscast to the rest of the class. Following the presentations a class discussion will be held with questions such as:

1) What changes did you make to the original news article?

2) Did you find any misrepresentations in the articles? Did you choose to emphasize these in your newscast?

3) What elements did you choose to make your newscast more entertaining than the original story?

My rationale for this assignment is that drawing on my experience, I believe I have always learned better if I analyze or perform a take on my own rather than simply reading about it. In making an actual newscast the students will understand how informed they must be, not only on the news article itself, but on what parts of the article might be invalid or misrepresented.

Assignment 3: Comparison of ‘real’ vs. ‘fake’ news sources

In this lesson the students will be shown two video clips: one official news clip and one ‘fake’ news clip. They will then be divided into small groups and given a worksheet to fill out. This worksheet will have an empty table with two columns: ‘real’ news, and ‘fake’ news. Here the students will have to fill the table in with the components that describe each of those categories. The students will then work separately to complete the rest of the worksheet which includes:

1) Summarize, in a few sentences, the main points that you have learned from the table.

2) Make an argument about which news source is better.

Here the students are forced to really think about which news source is more credible and informative. They understand the major differences that each news source chooses to portray. In this activity the students will learn how not only official news can be educating, but ‘fake news’ can also be informative.

Assignment 4: Analysis of Bias

In this lesson the students will be shown a few ‘fake’ news stories as well as read some official news articles as a class. The subject of bias will be explained to them and they will be given an example of how news carries bias. For example, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is inherently biased because it is a liberal based show and therefore aims its stories at a heavily liberal audience. The class will discuss some ways in which BOTH the ‘real’ and ‘fake’ news present biases. The discussion will also draw attention to the intended audiences of the news sources and how that affects the bias of the individual stories. Because of this activity, the students will understand that both ‘fake’ and ‘real’ news will have bias and neither one is credible all the time.