November 2017 541 C&RL News Sara Davidson Squibb Be aware: Elevate your news evaluation Emphasizing media literacy, one library’s initiative Sara Davidson Squibb is head of research and learning services at the University of California-Merced Library, email: sdavidson2@ucmerced.edu © 2017 Sara Davidson Squibb The following article outlines the University of California-Merced Library’s unfold- ing news evaluation campaign,1 shares our strategies, and reflects on our efforts. The impetus for this campaign came when a col- league shared Vanessa Otero’s News Quality Chart, a graphic that places news sources on X and Y axes, representing quality and partisan bias.2 Otero’s work, combined with increasing public concern and conversation about the legitimacy of news, propelled my colleagues and I to start discussing how we might emphasize media literacy, especially news evaluation. We started our discussion just prior to the spring semester, and we launched our campaign a few weeks later. Though this meant limited time for planning, we wanted to capitalize on this opportunity to promote information literacy by initiating and participating in a broader campus con- versation about news evaluation. Campaign components Exhibit Due to our interest in sharing the content of Otero’s graphic, we proposed creating an exhibit with both physical posters and an accompanying digital signage script. We hoped to use the exhibit to generate con- versation about news sources and news evaluation. We started by creating outcomes to give focus and boundaries to the exhibit content. Specifically, we wanted viewers to think more deeply about their evaluation and consumption of news media sources, become more aware of the range of news sources available, increase their knowledge about news sources and news types, rec- ognize that news article types have specific purposes, and identify resources to assist in news evaluation. The exhibit included four main parts. We adapted Otero’s graphic and used this as the centerpiece of the exhibit. Our adaptations included visually simplifying the graphic, add- ing a couple more right-leaning sources, mod- ifying labels, and adding a title—“Spectrum of News Sources.” Near this graphic, we ran a digital signage script with content outlin- ing our current news environment, reasons for becoming a critical news consumer, and strategies for news evaluation. The final por- tion of the exhibit included 12 posters, each representing a specific news source found on the “Spectrum of News Sources” graphic. My colleagues and I deliberately chose sources representing the full partisan spectrum and researched these sources to create poster content. For each news source, we included a brief source summary, founding date, po- litical spectrum placement, level of factual reporting, and a couple fun facts. These were arranged on a wall from most biased (left) to most biased (right). We also made all exhibit materials available for online viewing.3 mailto:sdavidson2%40ucmerced.edu?subject= C&RL News November 2017 542 Social media In conjunction with the exhibit, we floated the idea of highlighting the digital signage content through our library’s Twitter and Facebook channels. We generated ideas for content and our communications coordina- tor and a student assistant took the lead on posting items that advertised the exhibit, reinforced concepts from our script, and pointed to cam- paign events. Our followers saw two- to-three postings related to news evaluation most weeks. In addition to regular post- ings, our campus’ University Com- munications de- partment featured our deputy uni- versity librarian in a 20-minute Face- book Live event ti- tled “Ferreting Out Fake News.”4 Course instruction In addition to our exhibit and social media posts, we included an in- structional piece designed to increase stu- dents’ ability to evaluate news. We chose to target classes, specifically introductory Writing Composition courses, since our past experience with voluntary student work- shops has often been limited in attendance and reach. Our lesson plan involved a jigsaw activ- ity in which students were responsible for reading and evaluating a single news article, without news source information, before be- ing exposed to two other articles on the same topic through their peers. Through guided questions, students discussed each article’s level of accuracy and bias. We ended our lesson with a full class discussion and shared resources students could consult when unfa- miliar with a specific news source (e.g., Me- diaBiasFactCheck and AllSides). Our lesson plan and associated materials are posted at Community of Online Research Assignments.5 Faculty workshop Through our library instruction efforts, we were able to work closely with students, but we also wanted to expand the news evaluation conver- sation to faculty and staff. To this end, we worked with campus part- ners to develop a workshop fo- cused on instruc- tional strategies for fostering critical thinking, especial- ly as it applied to news evaluation. Though we could have offered this on our own, we approached our campus’ Center for Engaged Teach- ing and Learning (CETL) with the idea of presenting this workshop as part of a special topics series. While we prepared workshop con- tent in collaboration with two Writing pro- gram faculty, CETL supported the workshop by securing the venue and advertising. All workshop presenters shared approaches and resources they had used to engage students in critical thinking and to increase students’ ability to understand and evaluate news. Special events The final pieces of our campaign included several special events. We were able to orga- nize and host a presentation by Emmanuel Vincent, titled “Fostering More Accurate Sci- Librarians Elizabeth McMunn-Tetangco, Sara David- son Squibb, and Lindsay Davis display posters with responses to exhibit questions. November 2017 543 C&RL News ence Coverage: Using Science Expertise to Evaluate Journalism.” Vincent, project lead of Climate Feedback,6 spoke about the im- portance of news evaluation, the challenges of our current news environment, and how climatefeedback.org aims to help readers identify trustworthy sources of information and promote critical thinking. Climatefeedback.org, hosted by our cam- pus’ Center for Climate Communications, in- cludes a network of more than 200 scientists worldwide who annotate news articles on climate change, rating them for accuracy and credibility with the goal of “distinguish[ing] inaccurate climate change narrative from scientifically sound and trustworthy informa- tion.”7 We were for- tunate to h a v e h i s expertise available locally. In ad- dition to this talk, we hosted t a b l i n g events at the exhib- it on two c o n s e c u - tive days as a way to draw attention to exhibit content and talk with students more deeply about their own experiences consuming and evaluating news. Our tabling events involved setting up three information stations located at differ- ent points of the exhibit. If students visited each station and had their participation card initialed by the librarian, they would receive a snack at the end of the activity. At Station 1, we asked students to respond to two ques- tions on large posters: What are some of the news sources you read most? How much of your news do you get through friends, fam- ily, Facebook, or other social media? At the second station, we explained the Spectrum of News Sources graphic and showed online resources for learning more about news sources’ biases. Then students viewed the 12 news source posters before they ended at Station 3 to answer a final question: How do you decide what news sources and news articles are trustworthy? Reflection In reviewing the campaign, we know that some of our efforts generated more interest and engagement than others. I also came away from this campaign with two prima- ry observations. (While these are not new, they reinforce key elements for successful outreach and instructional efforts.) Reflec- t i o n 1 : P a r t n e r - ships and c o l l a b o - r a t i o n s b r o a d - ened our audience and reach. Personal- ly, I would c o n s i d e r o u r i n - s t r u c t i o n e f f o r t s , f a c u l t y workshop, Facebook Live participation, and special speaker talk to have had the great- est reach due to working with a variety of members in our campus community. By partnering with Writing faculty to offer our news evaluation lesson in writing classes, we were able to interact with more students than we would have had through offering a vol- untary workshop to students. For the faculty workshop, we found value in coordinating with CETL, due to its focus on professional development opportunities for faculty and its advertising avenues. In addition, we ensured that the workshop content included other fac- ulty perspectives and not just library voices. Exhibit logo and brand; slide one of digital signage script. Credit: Kris- topher Kline. C&RL News November 2017 544 On the social media front, the Facebook Live event initiated by university communi- cations with our deputy university librarian generated more than 2,200 views. Our own social media postings had a number of views but did not engage our audience to the same extent as the Facebook Live event. Part of this could be attributed to Campus Com- munications’ larger social media audience. Lastly, we were very fortunate to have Vincent contribute to our larger campaign by sharing his expertise about news evalua- tion from the perspective of a scientist and lead of climatefeedback.org. We found much value in these collaborations and partner- ships. In retrospect, we may have been able to generate even more attention and engagement by leveraging collaborations, especially by coadvertising and cohosting events. Reflection 2: Just as partnerships and collaborations were valuable, we also found that interactivity is important. My colleagues and I really enjoyed the activity of the class- room, the one-on-one conversations with students at tabling and a spirited discussion of bias at the faculty workshop. As noted by the number of Facebook Live views, that 20-minute event received a lot of attention. In future endeavors, we would look to incor- porate more interactive elements especially for any exhibit. During planning, we initially toyed with ideas for more exhibit interactivity. For in- stance, we discussed whether our adaptation of Otero’s graphic could be made interactive with the ability to move sources around. We did not pursue this route largely due to our time crunch and perhaps a little bit of apprehension about where some news sources might be moved to on the spectrum. However, I think there is the potential to take a risk with an interactive news source spectrum graphic, especially if the graphic focused on a single axis, such as the parti- san axis. Velcro or clothesline pins anyone? Though we tried tabling with our informa- tion stations at the actual exhibit, I think we also could have driven more traffic to the exhibit and had substantial conversa- tions about critical evaluation of sources by hosting tabling events in other campus locations during the first couple weeks of the exhibit opening. Conclusion Overall, we learned much, benefited from collaborations, and found that we have more work to do in terms of assessing our project’s impact. We did not formalize a way to measure the value of this campaign prior to launch and are still wrapping our heads around how to assess the impact of a physical exhibit. Though we did not formally measure our impact, we have had hallway conversations about source evaluation, rich discussions with students in the classroom and at ta- bling, and kudos from campus colleagues about the campaign’s offerings. I believe it raised the library’s visibility and reiterated our role as educators who are fostering stu- dents’ ability to think critically and evaluate sources accurately. We encourage others to launch efforts that help library users navigate a complex, and often confusing, information environment. We have provided our exhibit materials online for those who may wish to use or adapt these for their own purposes.8 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my colleagues Lind- say Davis and Elizabeth McMunn-Tetangco who were deeply involved in planning. They created exhibit content, taught classes, and staffed our tabling events along with Elizabeth Salmon and Joe Ameen. I also want to give a big shout out to our new col- league Breanna Wright who ran with social media posting ideas and ensured that our physical and digital exhibits were created and displayed. She willingly and enthusi- astically supported our efforts. In addition, our student assistants made important con- tributions. Kristopher Kline designed most campaign graphics, while Borna Zandipour made timely and regular social media posts. November 2017 545 C&RL News Notes 1. “UC Merced Library Fights ‘Fake News’ with Campaign, Exhibit,” Panorama, March 30, 2017, accessed May 12, 2017, http:// panorama.ucmerced.edu/news/uc-merced -library-fights-fake-news-campaign-exhibit. 2. Vanessa Otero, “High Resolution File Formats for Full Chart and Blank Ver- sions of News Quality Chart,” All Gener- alizations are False, last modified January 23, 2017, accessed May 12 2017, www. allgeneralizationsarefalse.com/. 3. Sara Davidson Squibb, “About the Exhibit,” Elevate Your News Evaluation, accessed May 12, 2017, http://libguides. ucmerced.edu/elevate-news-evaluation/ about. 4. Donald Barclay, “Ferreting Out Fake News,” UC Merced Facebook, last modified of them admitted they had taken at face value stories viewed in their social media feeds and vowed to parse them more critically moving forward. One young man expressed he no longer trusted anything he saw online. Overall, I found the lecture, discussion, and assignment to be valuable exercises in raising the consciousness of students about the veracity of web sources and plan to continue using them in the future. Conclusion Fake news, misinformation, and yellow journalism have been around for decades. As tools to combat actual fake news im- prove and people become more aware of it, truly made up stories may decrease and the phrase fake news may fade from social discourse. (Or it may become un- helpfully polarizing.) Beyond fake news, though, with the ever-shorter news cycle, the expanding dominance of social media, and the current March 17, 2017, accessed May 12, 2017, https://www.facebook.com/ucmerced/vid- eos/10154585516649151/. 5. Sara Davidson Squibb, “News Evalu- ation—Beyond the Checklist,” Community of Online Research Assignment (CORA), last modified May 9, 2017, accessed May 12, 2017, https://www.projectcora.org/as- signment/news-evaluation-%E2%80%93 -beyond-checklist. 6. Climate Feedback, accessed May 12, 2017, http://climatefeedback.org/. 7. “About,” Climate Feedback, accessed May 12, 2017, http://climatefeedback.org /about/. 8. Sara Davidson Squibb, “Downloads,” Elevate Your News Evaluation, accessed May 18, 2017, http://libguides.ucmerced.edu/ elevate-news-evaluation/downloads. political environment, there is increased concern about the facile, widespread dis- semination of biased, inaccurate news stories in general. It is likely that our students —and everyone else—will continue to be bom- barded by them. Thus, academic librarians, with our em- phasis on information literacy and with the guidance of the Framework (particularly “Authority Is Constructed and Contextual”), have a role to play in raising awareness about specious news and in promoting strategies for thinking critically about information. As our varied lesson plans show, there is no single approach to talking about fake news to effectively help students develop critical thinking and source evaluation skills. But our experiences discussing the issue in our course and the responses of our students indicate that it is worthwhile to address the challenges of identifying misleading, inaccurate, biased news, no matter what you end up calling it. (“Says who?” continues from page 540) http://panorama.ucmerced.edu/news/uc-merced -library-fights-fake-news-campaign-exhibit http://panorama.ucmerced.edu/news/uc-merced -library-fights-fake-news-campaign-exhibit http://panorama.ucmerced.edu/news/uc-merced -library-fights-fake-news-campaign-exhibit http://www.allgeneralizationsarefalse.com/ http://www.allgeneralizationsarefalse.com/ http://libguides.ucmerced.edu/elevate-news-evaluation/about http://libguides.ucmerced.edu/elevate-news-evaluation/about http://libguides.ucmerced.edu/elevate-news-evaluation/about https://www.facebook.com/ucmerced/videos/10154585516649151/ https://www.facebook.com/ucmerced/videos/10154585516649151/ https://www.projectcora.org/assignment/news-evaluation-%E2%80%93-beyond-checklist https://www.projectcora.org/assignment/news-evaluation-%E2%80%93-beyond-checklist https://www.projectcora.org/assignment/news-evaluation-%E2%80%93-beyond-checklist http://climatefeedback.org/ http://climatefeedback.org/about/ http://climatefeedback.org/about/ http://libguides.ucmerced.edu/elevate-news-evaluation/downloads http://libguides.ucmerced.edu/elevate-news-evaluation/downloads