Critical Thinking in Social Media News Assignment | Custom Assignment Help
Social media is a democratized information environment, where everyone has a voice, can offer an opinion, and express beliefs with parity. All that is needed is an attentive audience. Social media informants range from recognized subject-matter experts to propagators of deliberate misinformation or “fake news.” It is up to you, the receiver, to decide which sources are credible, trustworthy, and reliable.
If social media users do not perceive bias in the news, are unable to detect ideology, slant, and spin, or cannot recognize propaganda, they cannot decide which social media messages should be supplemented, counterbalanced, or dismissed entirely (Paul & Elder, 2006). In social media, we can easily spread news; what is more important is our obligation to discern the quality of the news we receive and pass on to others. This is where critical thinking is vital, as it is how we can keep social media beneficial to ourselves and others.
Address the following:
- Discuss the differences among misinformation, propaganda, and fake news on social media. Include recent examples from social media.
- Which of these three categories is most difficult to detect, and why?
- Locate and share links to reliable guidelines for use in assessing the credibility of social media information. Discuss the reasons you believe these guidelines are helpful and sufficient.
- What strategies are social media platforms currently taking (or considering) to improve the quality of news and reduce the influence of fake news on their platforms?
- What responsibility do we have, as users of social media, to detect and avoid repeating misinformation or fake news?
