{"alias":"blogEntry","byline":"Words: Jade Slaughter | Photographs: Dave Bird  ","standfirst":"Have you shared an article, or told a friend a story, without double-checking the facts? If so, you could be responsible for spreading fake news. We find out how to spot it, and what can be done about it","content":{"layouts":[{"type":"singleColumn","areas":[{"items":[{"gridType":"RichTextBlock","content":"\u003Cp\u003EFake news is content that\u2019s purposely created to misinform and mislead.\u003Cbr /\u003EIt\u2019s been blamed for shock election results worldwide, is considered dangerous by global experts and can be difficult to spot. Many of us constantly receive, process and share information via our smartphones and tablets, so how do we identify what\u2019s real and what\u2019s \u2018fake\u2019?\u00A0\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ESense About Science is an independent charity that champions the use and understanding of evidence in public life. Alex Clegg, their Campaigns and Communications Coordinator, says, \u2018In our day-to-day lives, we come across claims from politicians who want us to vote for them, and public bodies who want us to change our lifestyles. We say that if someone\u2019s making a claim and asking you to change your behaviour as a result, you should be able to ask them for evidence.\u2019\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ESense About Science has released the Evidence Hunter activity pack, which aims to get young people asking critical questions about the information they see.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe pack was created with the help of local Scouts and volunteers, including leader Jane Sarginson. \u2018As well as a Scout Leader, I\u2019m also a Biomedical Science Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University and a mental health researcher,\u2019 Jane says. \u003Cbr /\u003E\u2018So I get to see how important the ability to judge the quality of different information sources is to every aspect of young people\u2019s lives.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We piloted the activities we developed with my own Scouts, which was an interesting experience for all concerned. They really liked the fact they were helping to develop something that other young people would use. But it scared me how much they believed, just because it was written on a bit of paper.\u00A0\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFor Jane, the project is vital: \u2018I think it\u2019s important that young people become aware of fake news, because they\u2019re bombarded with so many different sources that weren\u2019t around when I was a kid.\u2019\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u00A0\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFact or fiction?\u00A0\u003C/strong\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWe wanted to see for ourselves what young people think about the news they receive, so we went to try out the Evidence Hunter pack with 1st Ely Scout Troop. Assistant District Commissioner and Section Leader, Caroline Spaxman, was kind enough to lead the session.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EOne of the first activities involves displaying five headlines around the room and giving everyone 10 \u2018trust tokens\u2019 each to distribute among the headlines, according to how much they trust each one. The headlines are: \u2018Caffeine reduces premature hair loss\u2019, \u2018Using social media affects your sleep\u2019, \u2018Charcoal toothpaste whitens your teeth\u2019, \u2018Eating dark chocolate reduces stress\u2019, and \u2018Being kind to others makes you happier\u2019.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ECaroline announces the start of the activity and everyone races to the headlines. Immediately, debates break out. After about 10 minutes, the tokens are counted. Caffeine reducing hair loss has 20 tokens, charcoal toothpaste has 28, dark chocolate 35, social media 59, and being kind has a whopping 78 tokens.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ECharles, aged 12, pipes up: \u2018The \u201CBeing kind to others makes you happier\u201D one is the most believable because it works for me!\u2019 Lots of people agree: the \u2018being kind\u2019 headline is popular because it\u2019s the Scouts way. Similarly, parents have told some of them that social media will stop them sleeping, so that one\u2019s well trusted, but the caffeine and charcoal headlines sound suspiciously like beauty advice \u2013 which they trust less.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ENext, the source of each headline is revealed: \u2018Caffeine reduces premature hair loss\u2019 is an advertisement from a shampoo company, Alpecin; \u2018Using social media affects your sleep\u2019 is from the Metro newspaper; \u2018Charcoal toothpaste whitens your teeth\u2019 is a claim from celebrity Nicole Scherzinger; \u2018Eating dark chocolate reduces stress\u2019 comes from ScienceDaily; and \u2018Being kind to others makes you happier\u2019 is from the University of Oxford.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EA fresh set of tokens is given to each young person to distribute with the new information in mind. Again, there\u2019s a scrabble and heated discussion. \u003Cbr /\u003EThe shampoo advert reveal is met with shrieks of laughter and its token pile remains small, with just a few of the young people wandering over to furtively drop a token. Finally, it\u2019s time to come back to the centre for counting.\u003C/p\u003E","gtmId":"","gtmClass":""},{"gridType":"gridImageBlock","gtmId":"gtmId","gtmClass":"gtmClass","image":"/media/3173/1.jpg","width":496,"height":279,"altText":"Scout pinning a piece of news on a wall","caption":"","link":null},{"gridType":"RichTextBlock","content":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe verdict\u003C/strong\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIt quickly becomes obvious there\u2019s a huge amount of trust in the University of Oxford: the number of tokens for \u2018being kind\u2019 has more than doubled. ScienceDaily\u2019s headline on chocolate has increased by a handful of tokens, and the Metro\u2019s story on social media has dipped slightly. This source is divisive \u2013 some Scouts firmly trust newspapers, while others are more cynical. \u2018I\u2019d trust all of the newspapers equally \u2013 I think they\u2019re all a bit biased,\u2019 says Callum, 13. Jacob, also 13, disagrees. He says, \u2018I wouldn\u2019t trust the Mail \u2013 they make some really weird claims.\u2019\u00A0\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe caffeine headline has just four tokens. Nobody seems surprised, and someone shouts, \u2018We didn\u2019t trust the caffeine one, because the hair people are making money from it!\u2019\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ENow that everyone knows a celebrity is behind the charcoal toothpaste headline, it\u2019s gained just four tokens.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ECaroline shares the full sources with everyone and there\u2019s a chance to assess them using the Sense About Science guidelines. Callum and Jacob are given the \u2018being kind to others\u2019 story, and agree it confirms what they thought. Jacob says, \u2018I put my tokens on this one because Oxford is seen as a very good university, and here it\u2019s been backed up by an in-depth study; there\u2019s lots of information about how they did it.\u2019 Callum adds, \u2018How they\u2019ve worded it is quite professional; they\u2019ve used figures and they\u2019ve laid out their method.\u2019 The full Alpecin caffeine advert also seems to cement opinions. From across the hall comes an outraged, \u2018It\u2019s scientific gibberish! What does it even mean?\u2019\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe most controversial story is the one on charcoal toothpaste, which divides the room. Aaron, 12, jabs a finger at the smiling photo and says, \u2018I trust the Nicole Sherzinger one most, \u2019cause look at those teeth!\u2019 Even in the photocopy, they gleam icy white. His friend disagrees, \u2018They could\u2019ve just got their teeth whitened though. They\u2019re probably being sponsored\u2026\u2019 Someone else pipes up, \u2018It says their teeth changed from first use, but I don\u2019t think it would.\u2019\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAlex, 12, has been studying the source for some time. Finally, he says, \u2018It\u2019s just one person\u2019s opinion, and it might make them look whiter, but it could also damage them.\u2019 The others nod in agreement. When asked if some celebrities are more trustworthy than others, Alex answers quickly. \u2018Yeah\u2026 Steve Backshall. He knows a lot. And scientists, like Brian Cox.\u2019\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EJoshua, 11, isn\u2019t sure. He says, \u2018If one of my friends on social media said something, I\u2019d trust them. I\u2019d trust them a lot more than any celebrities on social media.\u2019 Alex replies, \u2018Yeah, but I\u2019d trust an expert celebrity more\u2026 like a blogger.\u2019 The group start discussing their social media habits: who they follow and which channels they like. None of them seem entirely sure what\u2019s public and what\u2019s private on platforms like Instagram and Facebook.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u00A0\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBuilding digital citizens\u003C/strong\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ELast month, Scouts launched a new partnership with internet tech company, Nominet. They commissioned research from experts Unthinkable on how we can make sure our digital citizenship programme is as relevant and useful as possible. Matthew Shorter, Director of Unthinkable, noticed similar discussions on privacy when visiting Scout groups for the research.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EHe said, \u2018We ran a workshop in Lancashire, where I asked the young people how they thought social networks made money. It wasn\u2019t something they\u2019d given any \u003Cbr /\u003Ethought to.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018I asked them, why do you think social networks are free? They talked about advertising, and we discussed the fact that lots of people use the networks, so they receive a lot of data \u2013 which has implications for privacy. While lots of young people have got the message that you need to control your privacy settings, they haven\u2019t yet thought about whether social networks want them to do this: they might design their sites so that it\u2019s hard to find the settings or difficult to change them. Lots of young people haven\u2019t thought about these things on a business or political level.\u2019\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIn Ely, while everyone seems aware that the internet and social media can be dangerous, no-one mentions limiting their use of it. Matthew explains, \u2018There\u2019s a set of terms, \u201Cdigital natives\u201D and \u201Cdigital immigrants\u201D. Digital immigrants are older; they didn\u2019t have the internet or social media when they were younger so they see it as more of a separate entity and remember life before it. Digital natives are usually considered those born in the late \u201990s onwards \u2013 they\u2019ve grown up with the internet and social media being a normal part of life. It\u2019s generally framed that digital natives are much more clued up, but actually, digital immigrants have got some advantages as well. They often have a much clearer understanding of how we got here, what different technology is for, and what life is like without it.\u2019\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EOf course, it isn\u2019t reasonable to expect people to completely avoid the internet, and it has lots of benefits: communicating with different people, accessing new information, even creating social change. We just need to prepare young people for the challenges it throws up.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAfter the session, Caroline says: \u2018Before, I wasn\u2019t sure if the group was going to take to it. I discussed it with them afterwards and they said it\u2019s been really useful, because it\u2019s made them realise you don\u2019t have to trust the headlines. There are more sides to every story, and I\u2019m impressed by how quickly they got that.\u2019\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EMatthew agrees that education is important. \u2018I think knowing how to process information online is less of a hard technology skill and more of a mind-set,\u2019 he says. \u2018To be sceptical \u2013 not cynical \u2013 and to ask the right questions about what we see online is vital. I think fake news has been going around for hundreds of years, and you couldn\u2019t get rid of it without lots of negative side effects around freedom of speech. You just need to educate people about it.\u2019\u003C/p\u003E","gtmId":"","gtmClass":""},{"gridType":"gridImageBlock","gtmId":"gtmId","gtmClass":"gtmClass","image":"/media/3174/3-2.jpg","width":496,"height":279,"altText":"Scouts looking at sheets of paper with fake news on them","caption":"","link":null},{"gridType":"RichTextBlock","content":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThree top tips for spotting fake news from Sense about Science\u003C/strong\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E1. Look at the source\u003C/strong\u003E\u003Cbr /\u003EWho\u2019s making the claim? Is it a celebrity, a company or an academic journal? From there you can begin to work out where the claim has come from, and whether there\u2019s any evidence.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E2. Ask questions\u003C/strong\u003E\u003Cbr /\u003EDoes that source have any vested interests? Are they making money from it? Are they selling something? Why are they making this claim? It doesn\u2019t always mean the claim is dubious, but it\u2019s a good place to start. It\u2019s particularly important for channels like Instagram, where lots of celebrities get paid to promote a product. They won\u2019t necessarily look at the evidence, but they\u2019ll say that it\u2019s effective for a fee.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E3. Evaluate the evidence\u003C/strong\u003E\u003Cbr /\u003EHas it been peer reviewed: have other academics read it and agreed with the claims the study is making? Is it just one study, or have multiple studies proven it? Sometimes it\u2019s one sensational case that the newspapers are talking about, rather than something that\u2019s been subject to different studies, which the scientific community generally agrees upon.\u00A0\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EDownload the Evidence Hunter pack: scouts.org.uk/evidencehunter. Learn about our partnership with Nominet here \u003Ca href=\u0022https://fundraising.scouts.org.uk/nominet\u0022\u003Ehttps://fundraising.scouts.org.uk/nominet\u003C/a\u003E.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u00A0\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EYou can download Scouting Magazine \u003Ca href=\u0022https://members.scouts.org.uk/supportresources/search?cat=810\u0022 data-anchor=\u0022?cat=810\u0022\u003Ehere.\u00A0\u003C/a\u003E\u003C/strong\u003E\u003C/p\u003E","gtmId":"","gtmClass":""}]}],"config":null}]},"searchDescription":null,"pageType":null,"location":null,"versionDate":"09 September 2019","reviewDate":null,"furtherReading":[],"relatedLinks":[],"id":40239,"nodeName":"How to spot fake news","title":"How to spot fake news","type":"blogEntry","image":{"url":"/media/3175/imagegenashx-3.jpeg?width=800\u0026height=450\u0026v=1d9becd2fb9f730","caption":"Faking it 1","type":"jpeg","size":47924,"width":496,"height":279,"altText":"Scout running in circles."},"assets":null,"headerOptions":{"headerTitle":"How to spot fake news","headerSubTitle":null,"headerCta":null,"headerCtaText":null,"headerCtaLink":null,"headerBackgroundColour":null,"showSEOImage":false,"headerBackgroundImage":null,"quickLinks":null},"subHeader":"","browserTitle":null,"silktide":"eyJjbXMiOiJVbWJyYWNvIiwiZWRpdG9yVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9wcm9kLWNtcy5zY291dHMub3JnLnVrLy91bWJyYWNvIy9jb250ZW50L2NvbnRlbnQvZWRpdC80MDIzOSJ9","canonicalUrl":"https://www.scouts.org.uk/news/2019/september/how-to-spot-fake-news/"}