Arm yourself against fake news: Course

Fake news is everywhere. For many people (not just young people!), posts on social media have now become their main source of news. Clickbait tempts us to like or share things with friends, before we've even checked if it's true or who the source is. Conspiracy theories sometimes circulate on the internet for years. The lies and propaganda thus spread are sold as alternative facts . Increasingly, even the results of elections are influenced by it. How can we arm ourselves and our students against this? We will investigate the web together by using some OSINT techniques ( Open Source Intelligence ).

We introduce the theme with a video and presentation to discover and discuss the different mechanisms. You will receive the most important building blocks in a didactic sheet. The use of interactive web applications such as online news sources and tools to check messages or photos is explained. We work like an online detective with some OSINT techniques to check facts and images.