Fake News, Propaganda, and Plain Old Lies by Donald A. Barclay

No serious collection should be without this specific approach to independent, critical thinking and fact-finding. Barclay addresses this timely topic in a readable manner, free from jargon. Additionally helpful are chapters devoted to finding and evaluating scholarlyinformation and a list of helpful resources-turns out there are a lot more options than just may find this a useful resource, but it should be read by anyone who wants to better understand fake news and to better discern its presence and defend oneself against it.

The callout section on the Dunning-Kruger effect (inadvertently) explains much of what’s happening in America’s political climate readers will find it chilling. And his evaluation (and endorsement) of Wikipedia as a viable of information source is spot-on. chapter on fake news provides a clear and succinct overview of the not-so-new phenomenon and the factors that have contributed to its recent proliferation (e.g., information overload, search engine optimization, and political bots). 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. Barclay, a career librarian who has spent decades teaching university students to become information literate scholars and citizens, takes an objective, non-partisan approach to the complex and nuanced topic of sorting deceptive information from trustworthy information.

Inoculate yourself against the logical fallacies that can mislead even the brightest among us.ĭonald A.

Understand how to tell when statistics can be trusted and when they are being used to deceive.

Learn how to identify the alarm bells that signal untrustworthy information.Are you overwhelmed at the amount, contradictions, and craziness of all the information coming at you in this age of social media and twenty-four-hour news cycles?įake News, Propaganda, and Plain Old Lies will show you how to identify deceptive information as well as how to seek out the most trustworthy information in order to inform decision making in your personal, academic, professional, and civic lives.

Fake News, Propaganda, and Plain Old Lies by Donald A. Barclay