Fake News
... and how to deal with them

This book was developed by class 10b in their English lessons and aims at creating awareness about what mechanisms the creators of fake news employ in order to gain followers.
If you want more insight into the topic we recommend playing the online-game getbadnews.com.
Have fun reading and playing!

Mechanism 1: POLARIZATION

HOW TO POLARIZE

- impersonate a famous person/society etc.

- provoke other persons to get more attention

- buy likes, comments and followers

- make comments about important news or persons

- spread fake news; with fascinating headlines

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Mechanism 2

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CONSPIRACY

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What is conspiracy?

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-    An attempt to explain an event
-    Belief in an alternative reality
-    Conspiracy theorist are against science 

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How Fake News use conspiracy

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-         Use conspiracys to create uncertainty and credibility
-         based on pseudo-scientific results with knowledge of pseudo-experts
-         must be a bit of truth in the theory, because otherwise nobody will believe the theory

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How you can prevent conspiracies from spreading

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-          only read information from reputable sources
-         question statements

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Mechanism 3

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Impersonation

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What impersonation means

- You pretend to be someone else
- You stay anonymous on the internet
- False information is spread on behalf of others
-In fake news you can use it to look more interesting


How to recognize it

- Inform about the account
- Look at the content and the profile
picture
- Look whether there are purchased
subscribers

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Em

ti

n

- Mechanism 4 -

Meaning:

Impact:

Emotions are a psychological reaction to certain situations.

Negative as well as positive emotions serve to attract attention.

Example:

"The legend Morgan Freeman found dead on his own property."

Prevention:

To prevent fake news from attacking you, you should not rely too much on non-reputable internet portals, but read news on more trustworthy websites.

Trolling

- Mechanism 5 -

What is trolling?

Trolling is trying to create an emotional reaction like rage, irritation or grief. Trollers use emotions to blur the limits between reality and fantasy.

How not to be trolled

Not to be trolled you have to check more than one internet page. Videos and pictures can be edited. So not every picture is real.

What can you do against trolling?

If you get trolled you can report the message. The message will be checked and the author will be punished.

Discredit

- Mechanism 6 -

 dis·cred·it [dɪˈskredɪt] = someone or something to discredit / reputation, damage one's reputation.

To discredit someone means to lose the respect and trust of the population.
Getting people to disrespect someone or giving people a bad name.

HOW TO AVOID FAKE NEWS

- pay attention to the sources

- do not believe everything you read

- news on television or in newspapaers are more serious than social media (f.ex. Twitter)