For this assignment, you will use the online platform Medium to create a multimedia composition with 500-600 words of text. Your Medium composition will evaluate a fake news story that has circulated widely on the Internet. You can find these stories by reading some posts on your own Facebook page, or you can look at some of the fake news websites for ideas. Wikipedia has a good chart showing some of the most common sites to send out fake news. You can also visit Snopes for links to some of the fake news articles they have researched.
Wikipedia Fake News Websites (Links to an external site.)
Snopes - links to fake news articles (Links to an external site.)
Steps
Find a fake news story that you would like to research.
Google the topic and see what information you can find from some of the fact checking websites.
Focus on the image(s) and see if you can find where and when these were first published online.
Carefully examine the claim that is being made. If the claim is false, refute it with expert opinion.
Take notes on the above materials and begin drafting your essay.
Your essay should be organized as follows:
Introduction: Post the images and story you will be evaluating. Summarize the rhetorical context. When and where did this story first appear? What is the main idea of the story? End the introduction with a thesis statement.
A recent Facebook story (February and March 2018) warned people to stop purchasing Cadbury chocolates for at least a few months because a factory worker had infected the candy with HIV infected blood. The post cites the BBC as the first organization to break the news. The post also shows an image of a man in handcuffs being taken away by police. The text for the picture states, “This is the guy who adds his infected blood to Cadbury products.” At first glance, this might seem like something to be worried about. After all, the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) is a well-respected news organization. However, after careful examination and research it becomes clear that this is just another example of fake news that is propagating on the Internet today.