JUDY WOODRUFF: But first: Helping children distinguish between false information and
fact-based news, it's a distinction increasingly a problem for adults.
And, to be clear, we're referring to false information disguised as a legitimate news
story, not reporting that people dislike for political reasons and label fake news.
In Washington state, educators and media literacy advocates have joined together with legislators
to address the problem.
Special correspondent Kavitha Cardoza with our partner Education Week traveled there
recently.
It's part of our weekly series Making the Grade.
NIAMH O'CONNELL, Teacher: This was the front page of The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
KAVITHA CARDOZA: Niamh O'Connell third grade history class at Bertschi School is analyzing
old news stories, looking for evidence of bias.
STUDENT: People, if they don't know how to analyze it, will just say, oh, wow, that's
true.
KAVITHA CARDOZA: Fred Coddon (ph) looks at the choice of words used in a story about
Japanese internment camps during World War II.
STUDENT: Notice how they're wording it Japanese, instead of Japanese-Americans?
NIAMH O'CONNELL: What was the purpose of that?
Why do they do that?
STUDENT: The purpose was to say, oh, we're not imprisoning American citizens, or, as
they put it, we're not evacuating American citizens.
We're evacuating Japanese.
NIAMH O'CONNELL: And why do they use the word evacuate?
KAVITHA CARDOZA: Another student also notices the language.
WILL PARSONS, Student: I saw some fake advertising for the Japanese internment camps.
They said they were assembly centers.
NIAMH O'CONNELL: So they kind of made it seem really cool, and, actually, it wasn't?
WILL PARSONS: Yes.
KAVITHA CARDOZA: O'Connell uses examples from the past, so these kids can become smarter
about media messages in the present, even though they're only 8 years old.
STUDENT: I want to learn how to like analyze it myself and have my own opinion.
NIAMH O'CONNELL: They soak up everything around them.
I think it's important for kids to be able to control the interpretations that they hear
and see every day, instead of the interpretations maybe controlling them.
KAVITHA CARDOZA: Recognizing bias in news stories is one form of media literacy.
Spotting when the news is entirely fabricated, like these stories, is something else entirely.
Often, these stories are designed to look as if they come from legitimate news organizations,
and are meant to be easily shared on social media, resulting in confusion over what's
real.
During the recent election season, there have been reports of a concerted effort to spread
fake news, in a bid to influence public opinion.
A recent Stanford University study of almost 8,000 students showed they were easily duped
online.
Researchers found, overall, young people's ability to reason about the information on
the Internet can be summed up in one word: bleak.
You have been working on media literacy for how long?
CLAIRE BEACH, Media Literacy Advocate: About 40 years.
KAVITHA CARDOZA: Claire Beach is a media literacy advocate and former teacher.
She says just because kids are comfortable with social media doesn't mean they're savvy
about the information they're consuming.
CLAIRE BEACH: When they're using their phones, they may know how to make something work,
but they don't have the ethical piece, the emotional intelligence piece.
It's a wilderness out there for some kids.
KAVITHA CARDOZA: She's worked with lawmakers like Democratic state Senator Marko Liias
to encourage media literacy classes in grades K through 12.
MARKO LIIAS (D), Washington State Senator: I was reading a stunning statistic that, just
since 2003 to today, humanity has created more information than we created in all of
human history up until 2003.
So the pace of information, the pace of data, the pace of what our students are being exposed
to is rising exponentially.
KAVITHA CARDOZA: How do you convince people that this is not about politics, this is about
critical thinking?
MARKO LIIAS: Both of the bills that I have passed have had bipartisan support.
Whether you're a Democrat or a Republican, right or left, we want people to go into the
voting booth educated and prepared to make the best decision for our communities.
And if people can't discern fake information from real information, that really corrodes
the basic institutions of our democracy.
KAVITHA CARDOZA: The law in Washington state encourages educators to develop policies around
media literacy and to share resources.
It also allows districts access to federal technology funding.
This new law in Washington is being used as a model by about a dozen other states.
Advocates want to see media literacy taught in all 50 states.
JAMES STEYER, Founder and CEO, Common Sense Media: There's clearly growing momentum to
pass this kind of legislation.
KAVITHA CARDOZA: Jim Steyer founded Common Sense, one of several organizations dedicated
to media literacy.
NARRATOR: Here are five ways to spot fake news.
KAVITHA CARDOZA: They have also worked with Harvard University to create free lesson plans
and online resources.
JAMES STEYER: The essence of media literacy is critical thinking.
Every child in America needs those skills, particularly when they live in this 24/7 media
and technology world, where they're just bombarded with information.
Oftentimes, it's inaccurate.
KAVITHA CARDOZA: These students are in Catherine Sparks' English class at Edmonds-Woodway High
School.
STUDENT: It's crazy how many people actually trust these sources.
STUDENT: You can't distinguish the difference anymore.
STUDENT: It can get 1,000 retweets.
It is not even true.
KAVITHA CARDOZA: Sparks uses the play "Hamlet" to talk about fake news.
CATHERINE SPARKS, Teacher: It's about spying and lying and how that creates a ripe environment
for the proliferation of fake news.
KAVITHA CARDOZA: Sparks has created untrue stories based on the play.
CATHERINE SPARKS: In act one, scene two, when he says oh, but this too, too solid flesh
would melt, thaw and resolve itself into a dew, sure, it could be a metaphor, but Hamlet
has a shocking flesh-eating illness.
(LAUGHTER)
CATHERINE SPARKS: Could you actually support that with evidence from the text?
Good luck.
Fake news is not news you disagree with.
Fake news is fabricated news.
KAVITHA CARDOZA: Sparks believes letting her students create their own fake news will teach
them how to critically think through some of the information they receive.
What words are used?
Who benefits?
Is there any truth to the story?
STUDENT: It's got to be dramatic, like, absurd things that you're like, what?
CATHERINE SPARKS: This is a juicy story right here.
STUDENT: It's entirely fabricated.
CATHERINE SPARKS: What would be the outcome of producing this story?
STUDENT: If the public saw this, they're like, oh, my gosh, there's so much drama and scandal
going on.
CATHERINE SPARKS: What's been the most painful about the proliferation of fake news in the
media is to watch my students start to distrust everything.
KAVITHA CARDOZA: That's exactly why state Senator Marko Liias says media literacy is
so important.
MARKO LIIAS: At its bedrock, when our founding fathers created this country, the reason why
they were so committed to public education was to make sure that we had an educated citizenry.
CATHERINE SPARKS: Anything that starts with "share if you're outraged," that's a bad sign.
And outrage is just the lifeblood of fake news.
KAVITHA CARDOZA: For the "PBS NewsHour" and Education Week, I'm Kavitha Cardoza in Seattle,
Washington.