Misinformation in Public Health

Tutorial

This tutorial covers misinformation (fake news) and how to investigate news sources and infographics. We recommended it to all students.

These news literacy terms and types from the School Library Journal are helpful for talking about misinformation.

Term	Definition
cloaked sites	Websites that appear neutral but advocate on behalf of a cause while concealing its true agenda or source of funding
confirmation bias	the tendency to believe information is credible if it conforms to the reader’s existing beliefs
container collapse	Difficulty determining the container format of the original source (blog, book, magazine, etc.) once publishing cues are removed
content farm/mill	a website created by freelance writers designed to maximize advertising revenue by maximizing search engine retrieval characteristics
deepfake	a digital image or video which is altered to replace one person with another person to deceive or manipulate viewers
echo chamber	a situation where information or beliefs are reinforced inside an “enclosed system” and competing views are underrepresented.
filter bubble	when search engines use past user activity to determine search results content and order, potentially affirming our personal biases
native advertising	paid, sponsored content designed to look like legitimate content

Find an original source when no references are provided

This video provides more information about how to locate the original source of information from a popular science or health news article.