MediaWise #IsThisLegit program


Senior Member.
I'm describing a video that demonstrates three simple debunking steps for social media and offers help debunking misinformation. In my opinion, it's like a basic vaccination against conspiracy theories: it's the attempt to teach the basic debunking steps we all use, to everyone.


The youtuber SmarterEveryDay talked to Katie Byron, who runs the Google-funded MediaWise program at the Poynter Institute of Journalism to help teens fight misinformation online.
The first part of the talk presented a simple 3-step fact-checking method that helps avoid re-tweeting misinformation. image.jpeg
  1. Who's behind the information?
  2. What's the evidence?
  3. What do other sources say?
The idea is that is the source is not trustworthy, if there is no evidence, or if you can't confirm it, you should exercise click restraint and not share this information.

The video then goes on to demonstrate this method on two example tweets, introducing the tools of reverse image search and browsing laterally (open more tabs to follow different lines of information).
image.jpeg image.jpeg

In a second segment, the video introduces the concept that faster information sharing gets rewarded on social media, and in order to achieve this, news is often not verified, putting the burden on the consumer to verify the information themselves.
To verify information, media users should apply the above 3-step process; but if that is inconclusive, they can share the information with the MediaWise project on Twitter @MediaWise with the hashtag #IsThisLegit, and their team will try to help.

Excerpt from the video description, citing sources (the OODA loop relates to a concept that fast information processing is rewarded, which I glossed over in my summary):
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