GSAN: News Goggles: Fact-check like a pro | Ukraine rumors | First ‘TikTok war

 

Learn news literacy this week
News Goggles: Fact-check like a pro | Ukraine rumors | First 'TikTok war'

 
News Goggles Hannah Covington of the News Literacy Project talks over Zoom with Seana Davis, a journalist with the Reuters Fact Check team, about recognizing and debunking misinformation online. A hyperlinked play button on the image leads to a video of their conversation.

Misinformation thrives during major news events and can spread rapidly on social media by tapping into people’s beliefs and values to provoke an emotional reaction. Pushing back against falsehoods in today’s information environment is no small task, but a few simple tools can go a long way in the fight for facts. This week, we talk to Seana Davis, a journalist with the Reuters Fact Check team, about her work monitoring, detecting and debunking misinformation online.

Davis sheds light on some common ways that viral falsehoods spread — including through miscaptioned videos and digitally altered headlines — and demonstrates how to fact-check false claims like a pro, using digital verification techniques such as reverse image search and advanced searches on social media. Grab your news goggles!

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Top picks

The Russian Parliament passed a new law that criminalizes publishing information on the military that the Kremlin deems “false,” including reporting from independent news organizations and social media posts by individuals. In response to the law, one independent newspaper that has long been critical of the Russian government, Novaya Gazeta, announced on Twitter that it was deleting its war coverage to avoid prosecution. Other major news organizations, including the BBC, CNN, ABC, CBS and Bloomberg, responded to the law by suspending their broadcasts or reporting from Russia. The Washington Post announced that it would remove bylines and datelines from some stories to protect its journalists based in Russia.
RT America, a division of the Russian state-run “news” network, announced on March 3 that it would be stopping production and ceasing operations. The decision came just days after DirecTV and the streaming service Roku said they would stop carrying the channel. Tech platforms — including YouTube, Microsoft, Facebook and TikTok — also recently took steps to block or restrict access to content from Russian propaganda news sources in the European Union.
  • Note: As CNN's Oliver Darcy points out, major tech platforms are still making Russian state propaganda channels available outside of Europe.
 
Note: The ongoing war in Ukraine has resulted in an upswell of viral rumors, which we can’t comprehensively address in our Viral Rumor Rundown. For real-time misinformation updates, follow the work of professional fact-checking organizations devoting significant attention to Ukraine.
 

Viral rumor rundown

No, Time magazine didn’t publish a Putin-Hitler cover

A post on the social sharing site Reddit that says “Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” The post includes an image of what appears to be a Time magazine cover with a photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin with Adolph Hitler’s nose and mustache. The News Literacy Project has added a label that says 'FAKE.'

NO: This is not an actual Time magazine cover. YES: It is a piece of digital artwork created by a graphic designer.

NewsLit takeaway: Digital artwork often circulates out of context, particularly when it connects with a controversial or highly emotional issue — and the iconic nature of Time magazine covers makes them a common target for artists and fabricators (see here, here, here and here). Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 has sparked widespread outrage and condemnation around the globe and prompted comparisons to Adolph Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939. This likely factored into the speed with which this image spread across the web, in many cases without the designer’s digital signature — “By Patrick Mulder” — in the bottom right corner. No matter how much a purported magazine cover may resonate or conflict with your views and beliefs, it’s always a good idea to confirm its authenticity before spreading it.

Related: “How To Spot a Fake TIME Cover” (D.W. Pine, Time).

 

No, actor Steven Seagal isn’t fighting alongside Russian special forces in Ukraine

An Instagram post from Joe Rogan that includes a screenshot of what appears to be a tweet from the verified account of CNN. The tweet includes a photo of Steven Seagal in military fatigues and says “Intelligence agencies from around the world have spotted American actor Steven Seagal among Russian special forces positioned around the outskirts of Gostomel airfield near Kyiv captured by Russian airborne troops.” The News Literacy Project has added a label that says 'FAKE.'

NO: The actor Steven Seagal is not “among Russian special forces” in Ukraine. NO: CNN did not tweet or otherwise report this. YES: This is a fabricated tweet mocked up to look like it was posted by CNN’s verified Twitter account. YES: Podcast host Joe Rogan shared this image with his nearly 15 million Instagram followers on Feb. 28, then later deleted it. YES: In 2016, Seagal was publicly granted Russian citizenship by President Vladimir Putin, and in 2018 was appointed as a special envoy by the Kremlin.

NewsLit takeaway: Imposter content designed to appear to come from an authoritative source is common during major breaking news events when people are eager to find and share updated information. The involvement of a celebrity — especially one with actual ties to the Russian government — only enhances the viral appeal of this example. This is a good reminder to always be wary of purported social media posts circulating as screenshots with no link to an actual post. Such images are extremely easy to create using freely available online tools.

Related: “Fact check: Phony images masquerading as CNN coverage go viral amid war in Ukraine” (Daniel Dale, CNN).

 
Kickers
TikTok is rife with videos falsely claiming to show the war in Ukraine using unrelated footage out of context, during what’s been dubbed the first “TikTok war.” But it’s also a conduit for authentic videos of the conflict that “can create a more immediate, immersive experience of a situation unfolding in the moment.”
Maldita.es, a Spanish news and fact-checking organization, has launched a database of fact-checks debunking mis- and disinformation about the invasion of Ukraine. Called #UkraineFacts, the collection not only helps fact-checkers avoid duplicating efforts, but also provides insights into how misinformation jumps from one country and language to another.
Don’t miss this new fact sheet with “6 Things to Know as You Read About The War in Ukraine” published in the Media Manipulation Casebook, a research platform created by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.
WNYC’s On the Media developed a Ukraine edition of its well-known “Breaking News Consumer’s Handbook.” You can find it here accompanied by a powerful interview with disinformation expert Jane Lytvynenko. (Lytvynenko also spoke with Kyle Pope for the March 3 episode of the Columbia Journalism Review podcast The Kicker.)
Too often, race plays a determining role in who is deemed worthy of empathy in wartime and other humanitarian disasters, revealing “a painful double standard” in news coverage, Lorraine Ali argues in a recent Los Angeles Times piece.
Serena Williams leveled sharp criticism at The New York Times after it ran a report about her new venture fund in its March 2 print edition, but mistakenly illustrated it with a photo of her sister, Venus.
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy on March 3 submitted an official request for information from tech companies to determine the prevalence and major sources of COVID-19 misinformation.
An approach to combating misinformation called “inoculation theory” calls for controlled exposure to examples of misinformation, accompanied by explanations about why they’re false or misleading.
 

Thanks for reading!

Your weekly issue of Get Smart About News is created by Peter Adams (@PeterD_Adams), Hannah Covington (@HannahCov) and Pamela Brunskill (@PamelaBrunskill), and edited by Mary Kane (@marykkane).

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