GSAN: LGBTQ+ misinfo | Why bylines matter

We’re back! Welcome to the first Get Smart About News issue in our new summer format, which features top reads, NewsLit tips, RumorGuard notes and occasional videos to help you sharpen your news literacy skills. We hope you find this newsletter useful and fun. And if you have a moment, we’d love to hear your feedback in our short annual reader survey.

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Top reads

A roundup of the latest topics in news literacy and misinformation.

“A lawyer used ChatGPT to prepare a court filing. It went horribly awry.” (Megan Cerullo, CBS News).
“Elon Musk’s Twitter algorithm changes are ‘amplifying anger and animosity’, say researchers” (Mary-Ann Russon, Evening Standard).
“Can ChatGPT fact-check? We tested.” (Grace Abels, Poynter).
“Die-Hards Still Mailing Newspaper Clips to Family and Friends” (Sarah E. Needleman, The Wall Street Journal).
“Stop arguing about objectivity and start serving your audience” (Kelly McBride, Poynter).
“‘Like milk’: How one magazine became a mainstay of New Jersey’s Chinese community” (Mary Yang, NPR).
“Meta threatens to remove news from Instagram and Facebook over proposed California law” (Sarah Scire, Nieman Lab).
"Scoop: YouTube reverses misinformation policy to allow U.S. election denialism" (Sara Fischer, Axios).

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Featured video

It's Pride Month, and unfortunately there's been a lot of LGBTQ+ misinformation. This NLP TikTok video explains:

Dan Evon of the News Literacy Project discusses LGBTQ+ misinformation in an image of a TikTok video with rainbows and clouds behind him.

Why bylines matter.
Who’s behind the information you come across? It’s not always clear when you see an anonymous social media account, but in a news story you can check bylines! Bylines demonstrate transparency and accountability by showing who produced the story.

Share this NewsLit tip:

No, Disney didn’t replace American flags with gay pride flags and biblical demons didn’t use gender-neutral pronouns. Yes, two images circulating online of explosions at the White House and Pentagon were fabricated. No, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez didn’t say she had a crush on Twitter owner Elon Musk. Check out more of the latest debunked rumors on NLP’s RumorGuard!

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Your weekly issue of Get Smart About News is created by Susan Minichiello (@susanmini), Dan Evon (@danieljevon), Peter Adams (@PeterD_Adams), Hannah Covington (@HannahCov) and Pamela Brunskill (@PamelaBrunskill). It is edited by Mary Kane (@marykkane) and Lourdes Venard (@lourdesvenard).

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