News & information processing in the age of vast knowledge and deep fakery : challenges, thoughts, reflections, and a few tips on analyzing and filtering

——

Problems with news and data processing

Overload

There’s too much of it. We can figure almost anything out almost instantly. We can get information about almost anything almost instantly. The information is there. What’s not is a filter.

That’s what we’re not good at. Filtering.

Sourcing and authenticity

Anyone can access almost any bit of knowledge or learn almost anything. That means that just about anyone can create or produce almost anything.

So who do we know how to trust?

It’s not hopeless.

Convenience versus accuracy

We want things to happen fast. We want things to be accessible immediately. We want to know things right away.

But there is a price to be paid for convenience, for speed, and for figuring out things quickly. The price is often accuracy, especially when we’re dealing with information or data or problems that are not binary; challenges or questions that may have multiple solutions.

Our own bias

We don’t have the intellectual ability, shortly after birth, to learn tabula rasa. With a blank slate. That’s a wonderful concept; the idea of bringing no preconceived notions or experience to the table when we’re trying to learn something.

But it’s simply not true. We all have our built-in biases that lead us toward people, toward information, and toward answers that reinforce what we’re wanting or expecting to believe.

Evaluating information critically

We evaluate information differently than we evaluate a story. That’s because a story, regardless of genre, has a perspective or point of view, a plot, and many subjective elements in it that we can critique…but we use different sets of criteria because information, by definition, is factual. A story generally contains subjective interpretations, regardless of whether it’s true or otherwise.

We might take different ideas away from the information we’re evaluating, but we need to have some agreed-upon steps for determining whether the information itself is accurate.

That requires us to learn how to evaluate information critically.

SAPeR

Sourcing

Before you can evaluate information, you have to know where it’s coming from. That means you have to determine the trustworthiness of the person or people providing the information.

What qualifies them to be sharing the information? What is their depth of knowledge in this area?
What expertise do they have in the field they’re reporting on or sharing?
What perspective or bias do they bring to their stories they’re reporting or the information they’re sharing?
What do other (authentic) sources have to say about this source?
Does the author state their bias, or do they attempt to conceal it?
Is the information coming from an individual, or from an organization - and importantly, if it’s from an individual, is the individual implying or inferring that they’re representing an organization?

Accuracy

Is the information factual and supported by available evidence? Or is it opinion?
Is it timely and up to date?
Is there enough information available to be comprehensive about a topic or situation? Is there missing data or information?
What is the supporting evidence to to the information, and where does it come from? Are citations used?
Again: does it appear there is missing information or important details that are not being included?
Are there big generalizations or sensationalistic titles or headlines used that are not correlated, contextual, or relevant to the information itself?
Are there conclusions at the beginning or end that are unsupported by the cited evidence?

Purpose

Does the author intend for you to feel, know, learn, or think? Sometimes elementary teachers use the acronym PIES (persuade, entertain, sell).
Perhaps a better way to phrase it: is the author clear about what their purpose is?
Is it filled with more facts or more feelings (in other words, is it more about informing or about persuading?)

Emotion

What is the emotional response you have after processing the information?
What are the reasons you’re feeling these emotions?
What role do these emotions have in your evaluation of the information?
How much are your emotions impacting your thinking in making an evaluation? Similar to bias, you may not eliminate it, but simply being aware of how emotions are effecting your thought process is an important step.

Resources

Are there other resources that support the facts and evidence making up the information you’re evaluating?
At an extreme, are you relying on the claim of one website or person or source? Or more likely, are there credible sources that can substantiate and verify the facts, data, and evidence contained in the information?
Can you find three outside resources that support the claims made within that information? (That’s a good start).

Summary and Synthesis

Summary

This is when you are pulling the most important information and main points from a single source

Synthesis

Synthesis is to Summary what the speed of light is to the speed of sound: waaaaay different.

Synthesizing is when you’re taking a bunch of information from a variety of sources and finding connections, understanding, and meaning from putting (parts of them) together.

To synthesize something is to take a mass of information, perhaps about disconnected topics or subjects, and connect them in some way.

In other words, synthesis is not simply about evaluating a single information source. It’s about creatively, imaginatively, critically thinking about the ways in which disparate ideas might be connected.

That is the world we live in now. A world of information that forces us, if we wish to pursue truth and meaning, to process a lot of information from what seems like an infinite number of sources.

That is where the ability to synthesize comes in.

——

Recommendations, inspirations, suggested readings

Fighting Fake News! : Teaching Critical Thinking and Media Literacy in a Digital Age by Brian C. Housand, Ph.D (2018) is a excellent book and activity-filled resource. Its stated ages are Grades 4-6, but I have found it relevant and helpful for all ages