The Sift: Journalists facing dangers | ‘Brain rot’ era

November 10, 2025

Artificial intelligence Health/wellness Journalism Misinformation Press freedoms/First Amendment

An educator's guide
to news literacy

Nov. 10, 2025

In this issue

Journalists facing dangers | ‘Brain rot’ era | RumorGuard slides

Daily Do Now slides

Don’t miss this classroom-ready resource.

Top picks

Here are the latest news literacy topics and tips on how to integrate them into your classroom.

An illustration of a reporter wearing a press pass and writing in a notebook. In the background are silhouettes of an immigrant family and an authority figure arresting someone next to a DEPORT sign.

Covering immigration raids has become riskier for journalists.

1. Journalists covering immigration raids face dangers

Local reporters are used to covering a range of topics, from city council meetings to elections and culture. But when federal immigration operations began in Los Angeles over the summer, journalists there had a new type of story to report.

Dangers in reporting: As immigration raids escalated, so did news coverage. And with increased coverage, reporters at the LA Public Press, a 14-person nonprofit newsroom, faced threats of violence and retaliation. The newsroom’s editor-in-chief likened it to what war correspondents face.
Affected by news: LA Public Press is mostly staffed by people of color who cover neighborhoods they grew up in. Nearly everyone has been personally touched by immigration enforcement in some way.
Keeping journalists safe: The newsroom tightened digital security and created safety protocols for what to do if staff got hurt or detained. They also developed threat assessments to help decide whether it was safe enough to send a reporter to cover breaking stories.

💬 Discuss:

How do journalists cover immigration issues in your community?
When a story is important but could be dangerous to cover, how should local journalists decide what to do?

💡 Idea: Invite a journalist from the News Literacy Project’s Newsroom to Classroom directory to speak to your students about how they stay safe while reporting on potentially dangerous stories.

💡 Another idea: Share examples of headlines about immigration raids from several different news outlets. (Here’s some from The Associated Press, Fox News, The 19th and Block Club Chicago all covering the same story about a day care worker removed from her place of employment.) How do headlines from local news outlets compare with headlines from national outlets?

⭐ NLP Resource:

“Press Freedoms Around the World” (Checkology)

🔗 Related:

“Truth, Technology And The Cost Of Bearing Witness” (Forbes)

2. Era of ‘brain rot’

Does social media and AI make your brain rot — or at least lead to lower cognitive performance? Here’s what studies say about this technology’s impact on the brain.

ChatGPT essays: Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers found that when college students used ChatGPT to help them write an essay, 83% were unable to quote any part of their essay after writing it — raising questions about how AI affects people’s ability to recall information. In comparison, students who didn’t rely on tech could quote several lines or even their entire essays verbatim.
Kids’ reading skills: A separate study led by pediatricians found that kids using social media scored notably lower on reading, memory and vocabulary tests than children who reported not using these platforms. Other recent studies have also suggested a link between using social media and cognitive decline.

💬 Discuss:

In what ways can AI and social media affect how we focus, think and learn? How could this technology be used in more mindful ways?
If you were in charge of AI rules at your school, what uses would you allow, and what would you limit or ban? Why?

⭐ NLP Resource:

“Introduction to Algorithms” (Checkology)

🔗 Related:

3. Anti-aging products peddled to tweens online

Glass skin. Contoured cheeks. Plump lips. These beauty trends are often shared by influencers and brands on social media, but content creators are not always transparent about how they achieved their looks.

Beauty influencers: Teen Vogue spoke to one social media user who recalled buying a viral anti-cellulite cream at just 12 years old. Experts say young people are especially vulnerable to misleading beauty content as they face body image pressures on social media.
Unrealistic standards: Influencers may claim a certain product works miracles but also may not share if they use other products, have had procedures or use filters. Influencers are required by consumer-protection laws to disclose brand relationships, but they don’t always do so.
Beauty tips: Look for independent reviews of beauty products and consult a health care professional before deciding if a product is right for you. Use critical thinking and media literacy skills to help determine if beauty content is using misleading tactics or trying to sell you something.

💬 Discuss:

How do you know if you’re being influenced online? What kinds of claims about wellness or beauty products have you seen online?
Why might content creators not be fully transparent about their results, or about getting paid to promote a product? How can you tell if a post is actually an ad?

⭐ Idea: Use the “Reflect” slide in Week 9 of the Daily Do Now resource to further explore this topic.

💡 NLP Resources:

“InfoZones” (Checkology)
“Sift quiz: Wellness and science claims”

🔗 Related:

“Teen TikTok skin care craze may be harmful — and expensive, study finds” (CNN)

These classroom-ready slide decks provide a comprehensive walk-through on how to debunk false rumors.

False rumors continue spreading about escaped lab monkeys in Mississippi

An Instagram post reads, “Aggressive virus-infected monkeys carrying COVID, Herpes & hepatitis C on the loose after truck carrying them crashed in Mississippi” and features a video of a person repeating this claim. The News Literacy Project has added a label that says “FALSE.”

✅ YES: Several monkeys that had been housed at a Tulane University research facility escaped after a truck transporting them crashed in Jasper County, Mississippi, in October.

❌ NO: The monkeys are not highly contagious.

✅ YES: This rumor started with a post from the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department warning of “aggressive” monkeys “carrying hepatitis C, herpes, and COVID.”

✅ YES: The sheriff’s department later shared a statement from Tulane University, which clarified the monkeys were not infectious.

✅ YES: A local woman shot and killed one of the monkeys several days after the escape because she said residents were warned the monkeys were infected and dangerous.

⭐ NewsLit takeaway:

Many of the false claims we encounter online are started with the intent to deceive people, but some viral falsehoods — like this claim about highly contagious monkeys — are the result of unintentional inaccuracies. Check out these Google Slides for tips on how to approach breaking news.

➕ Generating headlines. Analyzing databases. Finding sources. These are some of the ways newsrooms are using AI technology.

➕ Two top leaders at the BBC have resigned following allegations that the broadcaster misleadingly edited a speech given by President Donald Trump before the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

➕ When destructive wildfires burned in Los Angeles earlier this year, conspiracy theory expert and journalist Mike Rothschild experienced false rumors and hoaxes firsthand after his house burned down. He looked back at his dizzying experience in this KQED podcast.

➕ Misinformation has been around long before social media. A story written in Syria in 1348 was misread as a factual account about how the bubonic plague spread, leading to centuries of misinformation about the Black Death.

➕ Students in England will soon learn how to spot misinformation and AI in primary school as part of new curriculum changes by the UK Department for Education.

➕ Just because something feels like science doesn’t mean it is. Researchers who conducted an AI analysis of climate disinformation online found that it looks more academic now, with graphs, charts and data-heavy visuals.

➕ Beware of fraudulent ads on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. This Reuters investigation found Meta’s platforms showed its users about 15 billion scam ads a day.

➕ Did you see the viral “Fedora Man” photographed in front of the Louvre the day of the jewelry heist? He wasn’t a detective, and he wasn’t AI. He was a 15-year-old Sherlock Holmes fan visiting from a Paris suburb.