An important article about the challenges of helping young people (now more than ever) evaluate the reliability of “news” they find online. One of the many goals of SLP is to help young people develop their research skills and, for students that have access to technology, the internet is an invaluable source of information. But we always talk about how to determine whether the information they find online is reliable.
And, as the Dean of Stonybrook School of Journalism explains, the fight is not just about fake news. “If you define fake news as news that’s totally fabricated,” he said, “that’s only a small part of a much bigger problem, which is this tsunami of information and misinformation, half-truths, advertising masquerading as news and opinion appearing as if it’s fact-based.”
He added, “Introducing this at the university level is way, way too late.”