
Media Literacy and Fake News in Political Education
Fidel Bartholdy
fidel.bartholdy@medialepfade.org @medialepfade medialepfade.org

AntiAnti - Prevention of Online-radicalisation

@wirsindantianti (Instagram) wirsindantianti.org
motivation & bildungsziele
What the Fake?

Overview

Overview


1
3
2
4
5
Who spreads Fake News?
Defining Fake News
Who believes Fake News?
Conspiracy Theories
What to do about it?
6
Media and Political Education

1 Defining Fake News

Defining Fake News

Source: https://www.br.de/nachricht/fluechtlinge-kirche-fake-100.html


Church in Munich, six new citizens urinate at a Christian church. SHARE so that even the last do-gooder knows about this disgraceful act.
Respectless and sad, I´m speechless.
Imagine what they would do if we did the same to a mosque ?
Source: mimikama.at
Defining Fake News

It turned out that these people were Christians themselves who have a tradition of praying outside the building.
Defining Fake News

Defining the term Fake News
> untrue, partly true or misleading piece of information presented as news
> text, picture, audio or video format and new compilation of these
> unclear/made up source of the information
> aim to change and manipulate discourse and opinions
Defining Fake News

Defining the term Fake News
> disinformation: consciuously spread false information
> misinformation: unknowingly spread false information
> malinformation: knowingly spread twisted and partly true information
Defining Fake News

Spreading vs. clarification
> Initial post gets a lot of attention and leaves an impression, doubt, emotion
> Clarification doesn´t usually reach many people, cannot reverse the effect of the fake news
Defining Fake News

Fake News in the era of Trump
> coopted by political actors
> need to define how it´s meant when used
Defining Fake News

2 Who spreads Fake News?
> Political actors
But also
> Advertisers/Click bait
> Phishing
> Satire

Who spreads Fake News?
Social Media companies
> partly benefit from the attention and screen time
> control algorithms which contribute to spreading fake news
> who is responsible?

Who spreads Fake News?
Fake News as a political strategy
Planned and deliberate Fake News
> emotional response
> distrust in government, media and civil society
> changing of the overton window
> radicalisation and polarisation
> increase in hate crimes and conspiracy thinking

Who spreads Fake News?

3 Who believes Fake News?

3 Who believes Fake News?
And why?
Those who don´t know how to fact check information
> creating doubt and confusion
Those whose world view is legitimised by them
> confirmation bias
> reinforcing stereotypes and political opinions
> importance of media and political education

Who believes Fake News?

4 Conspiracy Theories
Conspiracy Theories


Network of false claims and assumptions
> Fake News play key role to spread and sustain ideas of conspiracies
> symbiotic relationship with fake news
> emotions, not facts as ground level for belief systems
Based on the distrust in traditional media and government
> "we are lied to", "we are controlled", "we are in danger"

Conspiracy Theories
"The great replacement"
> claims a secret plan by evil elites to replace indigenous European people by Muslims
> antisemitic, islamophobic and racist

Conspiracy Theories


Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-45919730
Conspiracy Theories

A fine line:
Legitimate critique of power structures vs. conspiracy thinking
Conspiracy Theories


Conspiracy Theories

5 What to do about it?
Policy
> laws, regulations
Civil society
> debunking, activism, fact-checking websites
Personal level
> awareness, diligence, and skeptical attitude
> discussing the topic in our social environment
Education
> media education, political education
What to do about it?


6 Media and Political Education

Media and Political Education
How to approach Fake News (and Conspiracy Theories) in educational settings?

How to approach Fake News (and Conspiracy Theories) in educational settings?
Media and Political Education
Asking, listening and discussing: Settled values and knowledge, no moral high ground
Ask, listen and discuss:
Settled values and knowledge, no moral high ground

Political education: Which political ideologies are behind Fake News?
Media and Political Education
Asking, listening and discussing: Settled values and knowledge, no moral high ground
Ask, listen and discuss:
Settled values and knowledge, no moral high ground
Political education: Which political ideologies are behind Fake News? What are the dangers?
How to approach Fake News (and Conspiracy Theories) in educational settings?

Media education:
How and why does information get spread? Who is behind a news story/post? How can I fact-check?
Asking, listening and discussing: Settled values and knowledge, no moral high ground
Political education: Which political ideologies are behind Fake News? What are the dangers?
Media and Political Education
Ask, listen and discuss:
Settled values and knowledge, no moral high ground
How to approach Fake News (and Conspiracy Theories) in educational settings?

Getting involved: Get Bad News
Media and Political Education

Source: https://www.getbadnewsportugal.com/

Media and Political Education

Source: https://www.getbadnewsportugal.com/

Media and Political Education

Getting involved:
Creating Fake News
Media and Political Education


Source: https://www.worldgreynews.com/add-news
Media and Political Education


What the Fake???
Source: https://www.worldgreynews.com/details/166576/goethe-institut-covers-up-terror-plot
Media and Political Education

Getting involved:
Creating a Conspiracy Theory
Media and Political Education

Media and Political Education
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Media Literacy and Fake News in Political Eduacation 22.9.
By mediale pfade
Media Literacy and Fake News in Political Eduacation 22.9.
Beispiel, Anforderungen, Pädagogik
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