News Literacy: Resources

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. In Sapiens, he explored our past. In Homo Deus, he looked to our future. Now, one of the most innovative thinkers on the planet turns to the present to make sense of today's most pressing issues. "Fascinating . . . a crucial global conversation about how to take on the problems of the twenty-first century."--Bill Gates,The New York Times Book Review How do computers and robots change the meaning of being human? How do we deal with the epidemic of fake news? Are nations and religions still relevant? What should we teach our children?

The enthralling and never-told story of the War of the Worlds radio drama and its true aftermath. On October 30, 1938, families across the country were gathered around their radios when their regular programming was interrupted by an announcer delivering news of a meteor strike in New Jersey. With increasing intensity, the announcer read bulletins describing terrifying war machines moving toward New York City. As the invading force approached, some listeners sat transfixed before their radios, while others ran to alert neighbors or call the police. Some even fled their homes in panic. But the broadcast was not breaking news--it was Orson Welles's adaptation of the H. G. Wells classic The War of the Worlds. In Broadcast Hysteria, A. Brad Schwartz examines the history behind the infamous radio play. Did it really spawn a wave of mass hysteria? Schwartz is the first to examine the hundreds of letters sent directly to Welles after the broadcast. He draws upon them, and hundreds more sent to the FCC, to recapture the roiling emotions of a bygone era, and his findings challenge conventional wisdom. Relatively few listeners believed an actual attack was under way. But even so, Schwartz shows that Welles's broadcast prompted a different kind of "mass panic" as Americans debated the bewitching power of the radio and the country's vulnerability in a time of crisis. Schwartz's original research, gifted storytelling, and thoughtful analysis make Broadcast Hysteria a groundbreaking work of media history.

Are you overwhelmed at the amount, contradictions, and craziness of all the information coming at you in this age of social media and twenty-four-hour news cycles? Fake News, Propaganda, and Plain Old Lies will show you how to identify deceptive information as well as how to seek out the most trustworthy information in order to inform decision making in your personal, academic, professional, and civic lives. - Learn how to identify the alarm bells that signal untrustworthy information. - Understand how to tell when statistics can be trusted and when they are being used to deceive. - Inoculate yourself against the logical fallacies that can mislead even the brightest among us. Donald A. Barclay, a career librarian who has spent decades teaching university students to become information literate scholars and citizens, takes an objective, non-partisan approach to the complex and nuanced topic of sorting deceptive information from trustworthy information.

Has the information behavior of children and youth changed significantly over the last two decades? The Information Behavior of a New Generation: Children and Teens in the 21st Century attempts to answer this question from a variety of viewpoints. Thirteen researchers from educational psychology, computer science, education, and information studies have contributed to eleven chapters on models of information behavior, the cognitive development of youth, information literacy, everyday information behavior, cyber-bullying, gaming in virtual environments, learning labs, social networks, intellectual disabilities, and current and future systems. Whether they are referred to as digital natives, the Google-generation, or generation M, today's youth are active consumers and avid producers of digital information. Smart phones are the new generation's communication tools, social networks are their interaction venues, and virtual environments are their new playgrounds. This new digital communication era has prompted researchers from a variety of disciplines to contribute to this book on the information behavior of children and teens. One of the many conclusions that may be drawn from the chapters in the book is that information behavior is a multifaceted phenomenon, evolving alongside the rapid developments in information and communication technologies. The new generation tends to multitask, managing many activities simultaneously, such as scanning for and skimming information, texting brief messages, and posting audio and visual information on social media. While children and teens are tech savvy, they lack certain information and media literacy skills essential in today's digital environment. For researchers, the authors pose questions for further investigation in the hope that innovative services will be offered and novel systems will be developed to help the new generation. For teachers and information professionals, the authors provide a broad background to assist them with a more in-depth and thorough understanding and appreciation of children's and teens' information behavior.

A former FBI Special Agent, U.S. Army officer and leading cyber-security expert offers a devastating and essential look at the misinformation campaigns, fake news, and electronic espionage operations that have become the cutting edge of modern warfare--and how we can protect ourselves and our country against them. Clint Watts electrified the nation when he testified in front of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election. In Messing with the Enemy, the counterterrorism, cybersecurity and homeland security expert introduces us to a frightening world in which terrorists and cyber criminals don't hack your computer, they hack your mind. Watts reveals how these malefactors use your social media information and that of your family, friends and colleagues to map your social networks, identify your vulnerabilities, master your fears and harness your preferences. Thanks to the schemes engineered by social media manipulators using you and your information, business executives have coughed up millions in fraudulent wire transfers, seemingly good kids have joined the Islamic State, and staunch anti-communist Reagan Republicans have cheered the Russian government's hacking of a Democratic presidential candidate's e-mails. Watts knows how they do it because he's mirrored their methods to understand their intentions, combat their actions, and coopt their efforts. Watts examines a range of social media platforms--from the first Internet forums to the current titans of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn--and nefarious actors--from al Qaeda to the Islamic State to the Russian social media troll farm--to illuminate exactly how they use Western social media for their nefarious purposes. He explains how he's learned, through his successes and his failures, to engage with hackers, terrorists, and even the Russians--and how these interactions have generated methods for fighting back against those that seek to harm people on the Internet. He concludes with a snapshot of how advances in artificial intelligence will make future influence even more effective and dangerous to social media users and democratic governments worldwide. Shocking, funny, and eye-opening, Messing with the Enemy is a deeply urgent guide for living safe and smart in a super-connected world.

Today's learners communicate, create, and share information using a range of information technologies such as social media, blogs, microblogs, wikis, mobile devices and apps, virtual worlds, and MOOCs. In Metaliteracy, respected information literacy experts Mackey and Jacobson present a comprehensive structure for information literacy theory that builds on decades of practice while recognizing the knowledge required for an expansive and interactive information environment. The concept of metaliteracy expands the scope of traditional information skills (determine, access, locate, understand, produce, and use information) to include the collaborative production and sharing of information in participatory digital environments (collaborate, produce, and share) prevalent in today's world. Combining theory and case studies, this cutting-edge approach to information literacy will help your students grasp an understanding of the critical thinking and reflection required to engage in technology spaces as savvy producers, collaborators, and sharers.

Case studies, personal accounts, and analysis show how to recognize and combat pseudoscience in a post-truth world. In a post-truth, fake news world, we are particularly susceptible to the claims of pseudoscience. When emotions and opinions are more widely disseminated than scientific findings, and self-proclaimed experts get their expertise from Google, how can the average person distinguish real science from fake? This book examines pseudoscience from a variety of perspectives, through case studies, analysis, and personal accounts that show how to recognize pseudoscience, why it is so widely accepted, and how to advocate for real science. Contributors examine the basics of pseudoscience, including issues of cognitive bias; the costs of pseudoscience, with accounts of naturopathy and logical fallacies in the anti-vaccination movement; perceptions of scientific soundness; the mainstream presence of "integrative medicine," hypnosis, and parapsychology; and the use of case studies and new media in science advocacy.

This volume will explore news consumption and media manipulation, including selective curation of news stories and the lack of a shared news narrative. It will examine the effect of internet subcultures that manipulate news feeds, set agendas, and push ideas forward. It will investigate internet media's dependence on trending analytics and metrics, sensationalism of headlines and advertising driven models of news publishing. The volume will also explore the negative effect of public consumption of false or misleading news.

SuperMedia is a lively, engaging, and refreshingly-opinionated text offering informed discussion on the importance and future of liberal journalism as a healthy part of a flourishing society. Examines the profound changes journalism is undergoing for social, economic and technological reasons. Explores the potential for a entirely new type of journalism which these changes create, discussing the impact of social networking sites and blogs on traditional journalism, and making the case that journalism could be the catalyst for change needed to solve many of the world's problems in a controversial manner. Written by a first class broadcast journalist, it provides a practical road map for identifying the issues and solutions that will ensure an open and reliable news media for generations to come.

As the Internet has become flooded with untrustworthy information, some of which is intentionally misleading or erroneous, this book teaches web surfers how inaccurate data can affect their health, privacy, investments, business decisions, online purchases, and legal affairs. Bringing together the world's leading information-age observers, analysts, writers, and practitioners, this analysis reveals the Web as fertile ground for deception and misinformation. These experts provide hard-won advice on how to recognize misinformation in its myriad forms and disguises. Included are an array of tips on how to evaluate web sites for quality and bias, checklists for navigating the Internet more effectively, and advice for those who have been duped.