Fake News

2/16/17

Distinguishing between real news and fake news is a challenge we all face while scrolling down our Twitter and Facebook feeds. Did Donald Trump REALLY say that? Is that video of some event not covered by the news factual? Is every tweet, share, or article pure fact and not just a tool to troll the public? Fake news usually has a captivating, click bait title that purposefully creates anger within internet users; a great way to raise awareness in our community is by playing an interactive game which tests how prone the audience is to clicking on and believing fake news and keeps them entertained as well.

My idea for this forum is playing a Kahoot. Kahoot is a website my teachers used a lot in high school. Each participant must use their cellphone to choose one of the answers to a question on the overhead screen. The proctor would first design a quiz and insert images and questions, and then write up answers. The person to guess correctly and quickly gets the most points!

Now a great way to mix this game of Kahoot with this topic of fake news is by taking bizarre news article titles (real and fake) and seeing if the audience can distinguish between what is real and what is fake. To make this more interesting and difficult, I think who ever is making the Kahoot should find really out of this world but true stories to trick the audience. The point of this is to remind the audience to always do further research and not fall for everything they see on the internet! It would be really entertaining to see how many people click on real news thinking it is fake and fake news thinking it is real! I'm sure that by the end of the forum, many will leave with a better sense of awareness for propaganda on social media and in the news! 

Reviews of Cartel Land

1/27/17

The critics of the New York Times and Variety seem to have similar ideas about the captivating film which Matthew Heineman produced. The writer at the NY times talks about his opinion on Foley and how he seems to be driven by racist motives. This idea was similar to what I thought in my blog post about Trump and his wall and how much of the efforts going into border control is rooted from racism for people of other cultures. The writer at variety also addresses Foley's seemingly purehearted intentions which were tainted by racist motives. I thought this was true because there's no doubt that when hunting down the same race of people who happen to be committing the same crime, that racism ideas and motives would arise. While there were many aspects of the reviews which i agreed with, there were certain points I oppose

The writer at the NY times debates if the documentary is a true narrative, due to the lack of focus on certain vigilante details which were left out. I thought it was an excellent narrative which highlight the more interesting and necessary parts of the story. I think that Heineman probably did get more information and footage but chose to leave it out because of his own judgement on what he wanted the documentary to capture,

Some differences I see with real reviews and my personal summary is the use of colorful diction to frame the story in a positive light while still including the unfavorable aspects of it. My review was very informal and slightly one sided where as the reviews were brief yet captured the positives and negatives of the movie and including some opinion.