A new fact-checking site is teaching people how to better spot misinformation. On top of a library of authoritative tools to help individuals spot, verify, and fight against rapidly spreading misinformation themselves, RumorGuard offers a one-stop shop for misinformation debunking.
As Americans continue to drop the ball on media and news literacy tests, every resource is important. The study found that only 26 percent of Americans could tell the truth from a fake story. Two-thirds of high school participants couldn't find the difference between news information and advertisements, and 96 percent couldn't determine a source's credibility, according to a new study.
This situation is not helped by social media. The sites battle a lot of misinformation. NewsGuard found that 20% of videos suggested by TikTok's search function contain misinformation. The National Association for Media Literacy Education is partnering with TikTok's to address this. The same thing is happening on other social media platforms, if not more, like Birdwatch fact-checking and misleading post flags.
There's still a lot of work to be done.
The News Literacy Project teaches and fosters the skills necessary to discern credible news information in a push for broader news literacy. Special attention is paid to young people and the organization provides resources and expertise to teachers. The organization is helping people of all ages learn about news literacy.
Our democracy, our health, and our environment are at risk from misinformation. Charles Salter, president and CEO of the News Literacy Project, wrote in the announcement that too many people are not sure how to verify the news they come across and are convinced there is no useful action they can take to protect themselves.
The website is an interactive fact-checking resource, pulling from both outside and in-house professional fact-checkers, on viral misinformation and rumors, giving users the ability to not only debunk the big items floating around their social media feeds, but also their family members' Facebook pages. Five factors are looked at in this process.
Source: Has the information been posted by a credible source?
Evidence: Is there any evidence that proves the claim is true?
Context: Is the provided context accurate?
Reasoning: Is the claim based on sound reasoning?
Authenticity: Is the information authentic, or has it been edited, changed, or completely made up?
The News Literacy Project was described as an extension of traditional single-point fact-checking by the senior manager of education design at the News Literacy Project. There's too much misinformation to cover. Hundreds of people put out fake content on a dozen or so websites. The media we consume has an unbalanced balance.
Each example of a piece of misinformation acts as a teachable lesson about the spread of misinformation, with actionable tools to recognize and address future instances. Alee Quick, civic marketing manager for the News Literacy Project, said that they have a lot of resources that were originally intended for classrooms and teachers. It's meant to be a learning experience so that people can apply what they've learned to their own lives.
It is intended to help individuals in all sorts of contexts, but especially in your own circles. "We know that it's difficult to talk to people who may be sharing misinformation, but when these conversations start among friends and family, it's easier to stomach," Quick said. It's more convenient to speak to your parent or your child. We're trying to give people the power to do that.
RumorGuard is a new type of fact-checking website that gives "debunks" to curb the spread of misinformation. The engagement with future learning and the choice to give visitors a longer look at the details make RumorGuard different. Each debunk describes the rumor or misleading video or piece of misinformation, explaining what is factually incorrect, and just where the content failed the organization's five factor test. The project gives important information from the post, such as its social media reach and potential impact, as well as the larger context in which this kind of rumor operates online. There is a video walk-through of the misinformation to be shared as needed on the site.
The site's latest post debunks a rumour that an elephant seal walked around the streets of Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. The video is miscaptioned and is actually a 2020 video from Puerto Cisnes, Chile. One example offers a glimpse into altered videos, like one wrongly depicting president Donald Trump and Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema together.
The platform is part of a larger digital campaign against misinformation. It hopes to build a national movement for news literacy across all ages and may be expanded on in the future with things like direct-to-inbox rumor alert and other social pushes.
The News Literacy Project's mission is to put as many misinformation-blocking tools as possible in the hands of as many people as possible, and its library of apps, learning modules, and sites like Rumor Guard is doing just that. The one thing that I hope people don't do is speed up. We will give you the skills to go from there if you take a second to think critically.
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