This past Wednesday I was able to listen to a workshop about fake news presented by Dr. Nicole A. Cooke, Dr. Stephanie Craft, Dr. Barbara M. Jones, and Dr. Rachel M. Magee. A lot of interesting topics were discussed, but there were a few main points that stuck out to me. First of all, a lot of information was given about tips for spotting fake news. Some of the tips included looking for inflammatory language and looking at the about page.

Another topic I found interesting was about photo journalism. Dr. Barbara M. Jones discussed how it is often hard to spot fake photos in the news. One example she gave was of a photo of hundreds of dead children that was described by many national newspapers as a photo of Muslims being tortured in Burma. In reality, it was a photo of victims of a hurricane. This was just one example of how photos can be manipulated to allow an author to tell a fake news story. Dr. Jones warned to be skeptical of all news in order to be a watchdog of the press.