IN DEPTH
Critical thinking to navigate a storm of misinformation
Alex Clegg, Senior Community coordinator at Sense About Science, looks at how thinking critically in a time of crisis can help us all navigate a minefield of good and bad information, fake news and rumour.
YOUNG people are already bombarded with information and claims about what’s best for their health, well being and friendships. And now there’s Covid-19 and #lockdown to navigate too. At the workshops and activity sessions that I run, young people say they want to feel equipped to under- stand and scrutinise discussions about what’s best for them, their friends, families and communities. Educators, librarians, parents, carers and youth workers can empower them to do this by getting them thinking about the right questions to ask when they come across information they are unsure about.
At Sense about Science, the independent charity that champions the public interest in science and evidence, we have worked with young people around the UK on how to develop this critical thinking. Together we have produced free resources such as the Evidence Hunter activity pack (https://
bit.ly/31yrYdL) specifically designed to be run outside of school.
Spotting fake news Children’s media use is complex, and critical thinking is not a plaster for dealing with ‘fake news’. It is important to take this into consid- eration when developing resources and engag- ing with young people. At a recent workshop I ran with over 30 Scouts I asked them about the last time they had come across fake news. Everyone had seen some that day, from stories about a new species of orange dog to diet and
June-July 2020
Alex Clegg, Senior community coordinator at Sense About Science, the independent charity that champions the public interest in sound science and ensures evidence is recognised in public life and policy making.
https://senseaboutscience.org/
beauty product claims from an influencer. I then asked, how do they work out what’s fake news? Bemused faces as they said they just know... it’s obvious. Yet studies show young people are not wholly up to the task of assessing the quality or reliability of news (
https://bit.ly/3irotMi). This isn’t to say the Scouts were wrong – they were good at spotting ‘fake news’ i.e. false news stories and claims. Yet interventions to pro- mote news and information literacy are trickier than we might think. It requires more than tips on ‘spotting’ or ‘debunking’ fake news, as it’s the ‘real’ news that young people are trying to understand along with the complex evidence and editorial decisions that inform it. For social media users – old and young – news content is presented in a homogenised pattern, indiscrim- inately mixed in with celebrity gossip, memes and advertising. People might not be aware they
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