This new publication by UNESCO is a timely resource and highly topical subject for all those who practice or teach journalism in this Digital Age. UNESCO's new handbook is an essential addition to teaching syllabi for all journalism educators, as well as practising journalists and editors who are interested in information, how we share it and how we use it. It is mission critical that those who practice journalism understand and report on the new threats to trusted information. Political parties, health professionals, business people, scientists, election monitors and others will also find the handbook useful in navigating the information disorder. Written by experts in the fight against disinformation, this handbook explores the very nature of journalism - with modules on why trust matters; thinking critically about how digital technology and social platforms are conduits of the information disorder; fighting back against disinformation and misinformation through media and information literacy; fact-checking 101; social media verification and combating online abuse. The seven individual modules are available online to download that enables readers to develop their own course relevant to their media environment.
This handbook is also useful for the library and information science professionals, students, and LIS educators for understanding the different dimensions of fake news and disinformation.

Table of Contents
Module One | Truth, Trust and Journalism: Why it Matters | by Cherilyn Ireton
Module Two | Thinking about "Information Disorder": Formats of Misinformation, Disinformation and Mal-Information | by Claire Wardle & Hossein Derakshan
Module Three | News Industry Transformation: Digital Technology, Social Platforms and the Spread of Misinformation and Disinformation |by Julie Posetti
Module Four | Combatting Disinformation and Misinformation Through Media and Information Literacy (MIL) | by Magda Abu-Fadil
Module Five | Fact-Checking 101 | by Alexios Mantzarlis
Module Six | Social Media Verification: Assessing Sources and Visual Content | by Tom Trewinnard and Fergus Bell
Module Seven | Combatting Online Abuse: When Journalists and Their Sources are Targeted | by Julie Posetti

Additional Resources: https://en.unesco.org/fightfakenews

Bring media literacy and media making to your teaching with FREE self-paced online courses with step-by-step videos and hands-on activities brought to you by public media station KQED, an NPR and PBS member station.

Empower students through media making and authentic audience. Join a Youth Media Challenge to engage student voice and choice, while fostering civic engagement. Challenges are open to middle and high school students across the U.S.

These standards-aligned projects, for multiple content areas, come with ready-to-use curricular supports for self-directed learning. All student media submissions will be published on the KQED Youth Media Showcase.

Wikipedia contains a vast supply of information and is the 5th most trafficked website in the world. Still, it continues to be a controversial site, and many teachers advise students against using it. If students learn to use Wikipedia wisely, it can be a powerful resource for lateral reading, verifying claims, a starting point for research, and a springboard to more resources.

This lesson introduces students to Wikipedia’s standard of verifiability, which requires article authors to provide reliable citations to support any claims they make. By following these citations, students can verify the claims in Wikipedia and locate a variety of reliable resources with which to continue their research.

Photographs and other images circulate rapidly online and are often gripping, persuasive forms of evidence. It is difficult to tell if these images accurately depict what their posters claim they do, and it is often tempting to take these images at face value. If we trust images without verifying their accuracy, we risk believing false claims and narratives.

This lesson introduces students to a strategy for learning more about online images: the reverse image search. Students can use this tool to learn more about an image, including where else it has been posted online and what (if any) stories have been written about it. Students practice this strategy in groups, using the Internet to learn more about a single image posted within it.

Lateral reading is challenging, and an approach that may work for one type of source might not work for another. This lesson is designed to provide students with the opportunity to practice lateral reading with a variety of sources.

This lesson is designed to be taught after the Intro to Lateral Reading lesson.

When trying to determine who is behind online information, students may be inclined to read vertically—to make judgments based on features internal to a website like its URL, design, functionality, or content. However, these features are not effective ways to evaluate a site and need to be explicitly challenged. This lesson asks students to evaluate a website and a post on social media by engaging in both vertical and lateral reading to see how they compare.

This lesson is designed to be taught after the Intro to Lateral Reading lesson.

Once students have completed the Intro to Lateral Reading lesson, they need opportunities to practice the strategy and develop flexible approaches for using it. This lesson is designed to provide students with focused practice reading laterally with articles from fact-checking organizations. Students are briefly introduced to fact-checking organizations and then practice reading laterally about a website using a fact-checking site.

This lesson provides students with opportunities to practice reading laterally with news stories. This lesson is designed to be taught following the Intro to Lateral Reading lesson.

In order to navigate news effectively, students need to understand how the genre of an article affects its reliability. Editors of reputable publications hold news articles and opinion pieces to different standards, and savvy readers consider these differences when evaluating online information. This lesson will teach students how news articles and opinion pieces differ.

This unit engages students in a variety of activities that analyze and reflect on the role of social media in our everyday lives. This includes options for collaborative group work, reading nonfiction articles, a design challenge and presentations to communicate ideas. The unit also includes a formal writing assessment option that aligns with the Common Core State Writing Standards. Activities can be adapted or combined in a variety of ways to support student reflection and analysis. These lessons were piloted in 9th grade English classes but are suitable or a range of secondary students. 

We all look forward to occasions that give us time to spend time with family and friends and to give thanks for all the blessings they bring to your life. This project will result in the creation of a Life Story video honoring a family member or someone else special to you. The following list of activities will provide you with background and information you need to complete this project.

Make your students’ game play more meaningful with activities designed specifically for NewsFeed Defenders. This easy-to-use resource set means deeper learning for students and best practices around game-centered learning for you!

Extension Packs require PowerPoint and are designed for use with projectors or interactive whiteboards.

This classroom activity has students compare and contrast headlines of Breonna Taylor coverage from a selection of Sept. 24 front pages published across the United States.

An examination of several news reports to consider how different new organizations handle corrections.

This activity asks students to read and analyze news coverage of Chauvin’s trial.

This resource will help students identify whether stories published by a news organization are also written by that news organization.

Taking a closer look at work choice and framing, this activity helps students consider how these factors shape news coverage.