Sharing Good Practice
TEACH YOUR STUDENTS HOW TO IDENTIFY
FAKE NEWS
BY ANGEL LOZANO
W
hile speaking to a
group of local teenage
students in South Korea
a couple of years ago,
I asked how often they went online
to check the current news. At that
time, the tension between North
and South Korea had reached a crisis
point. I was disappointed to discover
that only one of the twenty students
checked an established news source
regularly. After I moved to England,
I put the same question to another,
more international, group of teenage
students and the answer was similar.
These days, teenagers do not log into
news sources such as CNN, BBC, Le
Monde, FOX News, El País, or The
Guardian, among others, to find out
what is going on in the world. As a
journalist, I admit that I am addicted
to keeping up with breaking news and
find myself looking online to check
the news every time I have a break.
Although I do not expect today’s
students to read a newspaper, online
or in print, every day, I do believe it
is important that they make an effort
to do so at least once a week. This
becomes even more essential as they
approach adulthood. Perhaps they
won’t begin by reading the news in
depth, but even reading the headlines
will help them become aware of the
major events that are taking place in
the world.
However, the biggest problem is not
that they don’t read the news. The
more significant issue is that they are
reading “Fake News.” Young people
are inundated with the fake news
posted on social media (Snapchat,
Instagram, Facebook, or WhatsApp)
and often believe what they read
without questioning its veracity. It has
become apparent in recent elections
that people, young and old, are being
manipulated through social media and
accept everything, factual or otherwise,
without checking the source. We live
in the culture of the headline and the
image. People read a headline or see a
picture and immediately think that the
“news” is true. takes for granted. Speaking at the Web
Summit in Lisbon a few months ago,
Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the
World Wide Web, shared his concerns
about the way the Internet is evolving.
The Web, that wonderful invention
that held such promise to change the
world for good, has turned into a tool
capable of manipulating elections,
provoking killings, fueling ethnic
violence, and ruining economies. He
has launched a global campaign to
reinvent the Web.
The purpose of every school is to
provide its students with the knowledge
and the tools required to develop
the skills that will enable them to
become responsible, compassionate,
and open-minded people. Learning
how to identify fake news is one of
those skills. As educators, we have
an obligation to teach our students
to discern what is true by questioning
the source, examining the writer’s
bias, and recognising the difference
between fact and opinion. I probably
did not read the newspaper often
when I was a teenager, but I also did
not have a powerful media device like
the
smartphone
sending
me
information 24/7. Until that new Internet arrives—if
it arrives—we need to prepare our
students to deal with misinformation
by promoting the study and analysis
of the fake news phenomenon.
Unfortunately, we don’t have to look
hard to find examples of the sometimes-
catastrophic consequences of fake
news. A real debate in the classrooms
about fake news could be a powerful
tool as we encourage students to start
questioning the amount and quality of
information that hits them every day
through social media. As a first step
toward learning how to distinguish
what is true from what is not, perhaps
we only need to plant a “wait a
minute” thought in their curious
minds. By provoking that thought and,
just as importantly, giving access to
the resources to investigate further,
schools can help students develop this
valuable life skill.
The Internet has changed the world
and the education that we provide for
our students must keep pace with the
technology that the current generation
Angel Lozano started his professional career in the United States in the
television industry as a producer. He returned to Spain and focused his career
on corporate communications. In 2015, he worked as Brand Director for North
London Collegiate School Jeju (South Korea). Currently, he is the Director of
Institutional Advancement at TASIS The American School in England.
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