EDITOR’S NOTE: The author of this piece, Dani Tietz, will also be on Sunday’s panel.
How does a reader, a viewer, a voter, or a consumer find facts in news today?
With terms like “fake news” being used almost daily and increased pressure on social media platforms to monitor misinformation, the conversation about where to find reliable information is pressing.
On Oct. 4, the Mahomet Public Library will host a Zoom discussion titled “How Can You Trust What You Read and Hear?” from 3 to 4 p.m. The event will feature Barbara Jones from the League of Women Voters of Champaign County as she discusses topics such as how the media portrays the news, recognizing the difference between facts and opinions, and identifying reliable news sources.
Jones, the former American Library Association (ALA) director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom, is known worldwide for development of curricula and training programs focused on news literacy. Through a grant provided by the News Literacy Project, Jones taught workshops that focused on helping students understand how to discern a fact from opinion in newspapers, on social media outlets, the radio or television.
“They sometimes couldn’t tell an advertisement from the news,” Jones said. “That’s particularly true on some of the press websites like CNN or Fox. I don’t want to take sides because they all do it. And it’s really hard to tell.
“So we started working with young people, thinking this will be great because they’ll learn how to find the information they need for becoming better citizens.”
The work was not just focused on national outlets, though. Jones noted that a group of students in Des Moines, Iowa spent the summer looking at news outlets in small towns.
“I think local news is really, really important,” Jones said.
Oftentimes, people are drawn into local news because they know an elected official, Jones said.
“It’s really important for people to start understanding about how to get news about these people and how to vote for these people and/or against these people,” she continued.
At the same time, Jones said it is important for readers to look at local news outlets and hold them accountable.
Under news literacy guidance, students called local newspapers and radio stations, asking them to look at the way they were reporting facts.
“Some of the papers hadn’t heard this from high school students,” she said.
A local, bottom up approach to government can be tough, especially when people don’t know where or how to get dependable information.
This is where Jones and John Howard, the Director of the Mahomet Public Library, believe that community libraries can play a vital role.
“I don’t think it’s ever been harder to find facts in the truth in the media than it is today,” Howard said. “There are so many media outlets who are more about opinion than they are about facts and news.
“As a library, we have to be very unbiased in the information that we provide. It’s important to us to help people figure out how to find good information.”
In today’s world, as people turn more to social media to consume information or to have conversations, they are seeking the library less and less.
According to Tristan Harris, a former Google employee who stars in the Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma,” platforms, such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, for examples, are built to feed consumers information that they align with, rather than providing perspective or challenging balance, in order to keep the viewer’s attention.
“They make money from our attention and behavior,” Harris told Ellen DeGeneres. “They need us to spend lots of time on the service, and they have to—we call it the race to the bottom of the brain stem—that who is willing to go lower on the brainstem to get that attention.
“So a person who’s checking addictively is worth more.”
Harris said that the platforms are built to hold people’s attention through outrage, narcissism, polarization, and disinformation.
By hosting Sunday’s event, Howard hopes that people will begin to understand how to get clear, unbiased information as the Nov. 3 election draws closer.
“Truth is going to be at a premium, and the stakes have probably never been higher,” Howard said.
Jones plans on speaking for about 20 minutes on the topic of news literacy, giving listeners tools to use in their own life. She will be joined by three local journalists, the Mahomet Daily’s Dani Tietz and Fred Kroner and WCIA’s Lindsay Jones to answer questions from the crowd.
Finding reliable news sources is only part of the battle, though. Understanding fact-checking sites or getting information on local candidates can also be difficult. Jones plans to address these topics.
For the Mahomet Public Library, information and community discussion has always been important. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they have worked hard to build engagement through digital platforms.
“We’re still trying to be a place that fosters good discussion and good communication within the community,” he said. “I think the library should be a place where people are exposed to ideas that they agree with and exposed to ideas that challenge.”
The Mahomet Public Library requires visitors to register for the Zoom link to ensure that safety for everyone involved. Howard said this is not just an event for older people, but encourages parents to watch with their children who may be voting for the first time.
“It doesn’t matter what side or corner or quadrant of the political spectrum you’re on, you should be able to find some good information, that’ll help you manage this whole process,” Howard said.
