News Media Literacy and Conspiracy

News Media Literacy and Conspiracy

Top of Mind with Julie Rose - Radio Archive, Episode 728 , Segment 5

Episode: Native American Voting Rights, Russia & American Democracy, Media Literacy and Conspiracies

  • Jan 18, 2018 4:14 am
  • 19:31 mins

Guest: Stephanie Craft, PhD, Professor of Journalism, University of Illinois Today President Trump had said he’d hold his “Fake News Awards” to single out “the most corrupt & biased of the Mainstream Media.” It’s unclear if that event will actually happen, but Trump has made no secret of his dislike for outlets ranging from CNN to the New York Times. What Trump calls “fake news” are generally well-sourced and responsibly reported stories that he simply disagrees with. If the story is too critical of him, it’s “fake news.” But that’s confusing, because there’s a form of “fake news” that really is fake - conspiracy theories and made-up stories - and we know there’s a problem with that kind of thing duping Americans. President Trump has actually promoted some of those conspiracy theories – like the one about Barack Obama not being born in America.  With the President muddying the waters about the nature of truth, how can we expect casual consumers of the news to tell the difference between fact and fiction online?

Other Segments

M.C. Escher: Finding Balance in Chaos

22 MINS

Guest: Kenneth Hartvigsen, Curator, Museum of Art, Brigham Young University If the name M.C. Escher doesn’t bring an image immediately to mind, think of a mind-bending black and white sketch you may have seen on a poster or a T-shirt or a mug. There’s a famous one with staircases that appear to be going up and down and even upside down all at the same time. Or there’s the image of two hands with pens that appear to be sketching themselves off the paper and into three-dimensional reality. And there’s a whole series of famous Escher prints that start as one geometrical design and morph across the page into something completely different. They’re the kind of eye-teasing images that, once they’ve drawn you in, you don’t want to look away.   See some of Escher’s work here.

Guest: Kenneth Hartvigsen, Curator, Museum of Art, Brigham Young University If the name M.C. Escher doesn’t bring an image immediately to mind, think of a mind-bending black and white sketch you may have seen on a poster or a T-shirt or a mug. There’s a famous one with staircases that appear to be going up and down and even upside down all at the same time. Or there’s the image of two hands with pens that appear to be sketching themselves off the paper and into three-dimensional reality. And there’s a whole series of famous Escher prints that start as one geometrical design and morph across the page into something completely different. They’re the kind of eye-teasing images that, once they’ve drawn you in, you don’t want to look away.   See some of Escher’s work here.