The University of Michigan will offer this fall a course that will teach how to identify fake news. Students who will take the course will receive one credit for it. The course will be offered at the College of Literature Science and the Arts of the University of Michigan.
"Fake News, Lies, and Propaganda: How to Sort Fact from Fiction" aims to help students identify genuine information from fake ones. Social media had become a point of reference for many students. But this is where fake news is usually found. This is true especially with the young people because they use social media most of the time. They share and tweet unverified information. This allows rapid spread of misinformation, according to CBC News.
The course will teach students techniques of verifying the truth of information to prevent fake news from spreading. Furthermore, professors will show them how to verify the truth of a news item. They will also be informed as to what point o view to take regarding some issues.
Students will be reminded to be careful with trending news in social media. They can do this by checking official sources of news. If that news can be found in several reputable newspapers, magazines and radio and television networks, then, it cannot be fake news. However, if it was never mentioned in other sources, there is a big chance that it is fake news.
News items that do not mention sources are most likely based on speculations rather than on facts. Fake news must not be allowed to spread. President Donald Trump pointed out that news that do not cite sources is most likely fake. The media must verify the facts that they release to the public, according to Breit Bart.
Michigan University believes that offering the course will result to intelligent reading public. This means that they read critically and they know which information represents fake news.
