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The Disinformation Games

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Case study: Disaster reporting

Every time a disaster happens, an enormous amount of disinformation is disseminated in addition to objective and truthful information. This happens according to recurring patterns. In this case study we investigate what good journalism is, what types of disinformation are disseminated over and over again during disasters, why this happens and how we can recognize this disinformation.

Disaster reporting

Recommended for: higher secondary education students, university students, adult learners

Available building blocks: 5

Tags: disasters, conspiracy theories, disinformation, Notre Dame fire

Here are a few helpful tips and advice from the people on the De Facto team who developed and worked on the case studies:

Difficulty level
All case studies were designed for learners in upper-secondary education, higher education and adult education.

Resources
As each building block of any case study comes with a different mix of resources, the difficulty level can be adjusted by:

  • controlling the mix of resources and taking out more difficult texts (e.g. scientific papers) and replacing them with more easily accessible language in videos or popular blogs;
  • controlling the number of resources to work with in a given training session;
  • allowing learners to search and come up with a selection of resources themselves.

Group size
Feel free to adjust the group size and/or the learning methods to make a case study more relevant to the specific needs of your learners.

Language versions
De Facto’s case studies are a product of multinational cooperation. You will notice that resources vary, sometimes significantly, across the different language versions. Being the common working language of the team, it is the English version of the case studies which is most complete, actual and elaborate. See this for yourself when you are choosing a topic to work on, and compare your own language version with the lead version in English. Feel free to combine resources and methods!

Tools
Check the De Facto’s page dedicated to digital tools which can help an educator to work with the case studies more effectively. Use of ICT tools can make a training session on disinformation more practical and engaging for learners.

Tips for educators

Building block 1. Disaster reporting: what happens during and after a disaster occurs (short and long term)

Disasters are reported on official and recongnized news channels and on offical websites, and also on social media. In a first phase, there's the initial breaking news reporting and in a second phase the reporting on longer term. During the breaking news phase the reporting will be done by professional journalists and reporters (professional journalism), and also by eye witnesses, care givers, victims or just by witnesses by hearsay (citizen journalism). The line between sensation and information and between true and false information is thin and news will be spread at a fast pace. During the longer term phase, professionals and citizen will look for answers, and point out causes and causers. In this block the process of disaster reporting is discovered, explained and analyzed.

Suggested resources

1. Elements of journalism:
https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/elements-journalism/ [Open from webarchive if link broken/inactive]

2. Factual disaster reporting
http://hisz.rsoe.hu [Open from webarchive if link broken/inactive]
https://earthjournalism.net/resources/reporting-on-disasters [Open from webarchive if link broken/inactive]

3. General information and exampels of digital disinformation (general descriptions of examples of disinformation disaster reporting):
http://www.magazinemedia.be/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/White_paper-fake-news_EN.pdf  [Open from webarchive if link broken/inactive]
https://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PE198.html [Open from webarchive if link broken/inactive]
https://propaganda.mediaeducationlab.com (lesson plan)  [Open from webarchive if link broken/inactive]

4. False connection and misinterpreted content (specific examples of immediate and short term disinformation disaster reporting):
https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/chasing-disaster-risks-fast-furious-or-fake-news [Open from webarchive if link broken/inactive]
https://observers.france24.com/en/20190416-debunked-france-fake-news-notre-dame-fire-paris [Open from webarchive if link broken/inactive]

5. Conspiracy theory content (specific examples of immediate and short term disinformation disaster reporting):
https://codastory.com/news/islamophobic-fake-news-explodes-after-notre-dame/ [Open from webarchive if link broken/inactive]

6. Hoaxes (specific examples of immediate and short term disinformation disaster reporting):
https://glean.info/notre-dame-fire-highlights-problems-of-fighting-fake-news/  [Open from webarchive if link broken/inactive]

7. Ideology related content (specific examples of immediate and short term disinformation disaster reporting):
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-election-disinformation/who-burned-notre-dame-brussels-goes-after-fake-news-as-eu-election-nears-idUSKCN1SM0LQ [Open from webarchive if link broken/inactive]

8. Social media use for false news spreading (specific examples of immediate and short term disinformation disaster reporting)
https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/SMWG_Countering-False-Info-Social-Media-Disasters-Emergencies_Mar2018-508.pdf [Open from webarchive if link broken/inactive]

Learning outcomes

The learning outcomes represent the competences which learners are expected to develop as a result of the training intervention:

1. List, summarize and recognize the differences between facts, beliefs, opinions, interpretations (knowledge and understanding)
2. Determine the process of disaster reporting (who, when, how, why) related to quality of the report content
3. Select the most reliable information
4. Check the reliability of the report content related to various factors (the timing, source, message etc)
5. Generate information about the facts (when, where, who, what, how...)
6. Assemble the facts in an infonographic
7. Building awareness of mis- and disinformation in general

Suggested teaching methods

> Ice breaker with the whole group ==> teacher-student interaction: popcorn method (answers pop up randomly)
> Class discussion ==> teacher-student interaction: what kind of reporting do you remember about that particular incident and when did this reporting occured
> Class discussion ==> teacher-student interaction: students try to remember from whom they heard the information about the disaster
> Class discussion ==> teacher-student interaction: students reflect on the reliability of the report content on official news sites and social media
> Library research ==> individually assigned searching and reading : students look up the difference between a fact, a belief, an opinion and an interpretation + compare examples from official and social media sites
> Put the result into picture ==> written report: students generate ans assemble a timeline and corresponding infonographic about the disaster reporting process
> Put the result into picture ==> oral report: check the generated timeline and infonographic with the reporting of another disaster (than the Notre Dame fire)

Suggested learning activities

> Icebreaker ): describe a disaster you remember and tell the group where you were and what you were doing at that time

> Buzz session : Look up information about the Notre Dame fire and detect differences between timing, content and kind of journalists when comparing offical news sites to social media sites

> Prior understanding: point out which information, at what time heard and by whom reported most attracted your attention and felt most reliable to you

> Prior understanding: what is the difference between a fact, a belief, an opinion and an interpretation

> Use of video-fragments and articles from Internet on the Notre Dame fire, to illustrate the difference between facts, beliefs, opinions and interpretations

> Think, pair and share in groups of max 4 students the facts on the Notre Dame fire

> Create an infonographic about the facts on the Notre Dame fire, in groups of max 4 students

> Present and Check your findings with the other groups

De Facto pillars

Motivated cognition: in this case study it becomes clear that how, why and by whom the information about a disaster is reported, has an effect on the perception of the public.

Systemic causality: the real causes of the disaster are not always immediately visible and clear. The case study shows how fast people believe directly perceptible observations.

Frames and framing: the case study shows that, depending on what people want to read and what they want to believe is the cause of a disaster, they will consult specific sources.

Emphasis and equivalence: It is clear that information on disasters sometimes on purpose only emphasize certain aspects, or shows equivalence with other disasters. The results of this kind of framing is also discussed in this case study.

Additional online tools

Mentimeter (or another poll tool)

Warning

You have selected a topic from the Disinformation Games area. Please be advised that this area hosts, or links to, resources that contain misinformation or disinformation. The presence of such materials is to assist in developing and sustaining skills for navigating and detecting disinformation. To achieve this goal – and with clear intent – none of the materials are explicitly marked as true or not true.