Writers Blog
This week we continued working on/talking about the Check Please! assignments and finished the week with a review session. In class on Monday, we watched “Why People Fall for Misinformation”. I thought this video was very interesting and I enjoyed how it was related to everyday things and experiences. It was interesting to talk about why people truly do fall for misinformation and what that looks like. It can be easy to fall for misinformation these days with the internet, because there are so many different sources that can all provide different information. On Monday, we also looked over the slides for Check Please Lesson 3. I’ve learned a lot while doing the check please lessons, and I’ve enjoyed how they relate to what we learn about in class. While doing lesson 3, I learned about investigating sources and how to do so using other sources like Wikipedia and Google News to check source identity.
In class on Wednesday, we learned about the importance of scanning Google News for relevant stories, using fact-checking sites, and using image searching to find relevant sources. I honestly didn’t even think to use image searching until our class on Wednesday! When we were presented with the fried rice wave, image search would’ve been an easy way to figure out if that photo was real or fake. Instead, I just googled “guy flipping fried rice wave”, and while I found it on google, image search would’ve given me the results instantly. We also talked briefly about False Frames. This is when a photo or video is fake or manipulated online. I feel like nowadays it’s very easy to photoshop or edit a photo/video and post it online without anybody knowing. I enjoy learning more on this topic because this is something that is more common than people may think.
On Friday, we did a review activity that consisted of answering questions based on what we’ve learned so far throughout the Check Please lessons. These questions were helpful and a good way to look back on all that we’ve learned. Prior to this class and these Check Please lessons, I honestly didn’t know that half of the websites/sources that we’ve used existed! I’ve been enjoying learning more about the digital world and becoming more familiar with the importance of fact checking online.
