How good are you at spotting fake news? One of the many problems that non-academic evidence-based practitioners face is understanding the veracity or trustworthiness of research papers. Many practitioners do not always realise is that many
- studies,
- think tank reports,
- blog posts,
- LinkedIn posts,
- white papers,
- reports and other expert opinion articles
are frequently biased. One of the reasons that most academic journals these require researchers to make clear their affiliations (which institutions they are from and who funded the research) is so that other researchers can tell if there is any likelihood of bias due to the agendas of the corporations they either receive funding from, are sponsored or employed by.
The American University’s (AU) (a private, research focussed university in Washington, D.C. ) School of Communication has a really interesting project around evidence-based journalism that you might want to know about and play with.
What particularly caught my eye recently was an interesting collaboration the School of Communication has with another department within the University called the GameLab. This collaboration has brought together academics from the world of journalism and computer gaming. A School of Communication research team known as JoLT or Journalism and Leadership Transformation has been working with the GameLab to produce a research project/game to look at whether people can accurately spot fake news or real reporting and information.
The game called FACTITIOUS is interesting and will test your ability to be able to spot fake news. In playing the game you will also be helping the researchers conduct their research into what people look for to spot a fake, and how good they are at working out the biased from the unbiased reporting.
You can play the FACTITIOUS game here and help with their research
What score did I get?
Ah! Er – I got 80% correct.
Your go…
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