How Can Facebook And Google Tackle The Fake News Problem?
Slate’s Will Oremus talks about the challenges of putting a damper on the viral spread of fake news, and what readers can do to be more aware of their online news diet.
Vocabulary: fake news, algorithm, skewed, prioritized
Common Core State Standards: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.3, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.3, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9–10.3. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.1, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.1, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.1
In the days just after the presidential election, the top result returned by the Google News service for the search “final election results” was an article from a dubious website that claimed — wrongly — that Donald Trump had won the popular vote. In fact, an analysis by BuzzFeed News found that in the final three months of the election season, fake news stories on Facebook outperformed top real news stories published by reputable news providers such as The New York Times, the Washington Post, and NBC News.
Both Google and Facebook have said that they will put measures in place designed to slow the spread of fake news, mainly by restricting the placement of advertisements that earn money for viral sites, though Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg said last week that he doubted fake news had had much impact on the election. Slate’s Will Oremus joins Ira to talk about the challenges of putting a damper on the viral spread of fake news, and what readers can do to be more aware of their online news diet.
Print this segment transcript.
Questions for Students
- What is Facebook’s current strategy to address fake news on its site?
- How were fake news stories able to generate so much traffic on Facebook? What features of Facebook enabled them to be spread so broadly?
- Do you think it is important to be able to distinguish accurate news from fake news? Why or why not?
- How do you evaluate news for accuracy?
Activity Suggestions
- Work to help your students become their own fact checkers. Check out this article about a Stanford study that found that most students cannot tell when news is fake. Work with your students on ways to evaluate news for accuracy in reporting. Check out this article about taking a closer look at your news. Work on activities that ask students to assess whether the source supports the claim. Check out these tips on fact checking.
- Discuss the impact of social media algorithms on our feeds and our lives with this Science Friday discussion-based activity. Students take a stab at debating which type of algorithm they prefer and work together to design their ideal social media experience.
