Importance of Fact-checking Skills

Today, while going through LiDA course resources, I came across an OERu book  titled "Web literacy for student Fact-Checkers" by Mike Caulfield (https://webliteracy.pressbooks.com/)  (Caulfield, 2017). This book presents a different orientation towards consuming information online and I believe, the ideas and thought process presented on this book is a must read for everyone. During the last few years, we have seen how the Internet has been a breeding ground for hate speech, fake news and political bias. Many companies as well as governments have mastered how to spread false information through emotional triggers. Even though there is a lot of discussions going on about making inter-governmental policies to stop the spread of fake news, unless users are educated and habituated with an easy way to harness emotional intelligence to refrain from consuming and spreading fake information, technology or policy enforcement cannot solve the issue. 

This book even has a chapter that talks about building fact-checking habit by checking your emotion: "The habit is simple. When you feel strong emotion–happiness, anger, pride, vindication–and that emotion pushes you to share a “fact” with others, STOP. Above all, these are the claims that you must fact-check (Caulfield, 2017)" 

I strongly recommend everyone to read this book and practice the suggested guideline in our everyday digital life. 

I am really passionate about this topic and I have contributed in many international dialogues on cross border content censorship, hate speech vs freedom of speech as well as on users' rights on privacy. I am posting a photo of me at the Internet Governance Form where I talked about hate speech and the responsibility of platforms/Governments.


Figure 1: My Picture at IGF 2012 

[P.S.:  I am writing this blogpost as part of my Learning in Digital Age (LiDA101) course requirement. This course is all about creating one's own learning space and learning network using Open Education Resources (OER). The fundamental aspect of using online content to build one's knowledge base is about having the right skill to know which material is legitimate and authentic. Therefore, the book I highlighted above is extremely important in order to develop the skills to select the relevant content.

Through completion of this course requirement, I intent to learn more about the different sources of online learning materials and open source software tools for deliver teaching as well as own learning network. ]

References:

Caulfield, M. (2017). Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers. Self-published. https://webliteracy.pressbooks.com/

 


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