In today’s media landscape, many people, especially young people, often get information about current events from websites and social media. At the same time, there are actors who are using these channels to spread fear and prejudice through false news.
To be able to critically review news, a high level of education and general critical attitude is not enough. Anyone can be tricked by false news, regardless of whether they are a primary school pupil or a senior professor. The best way to determine if a news item is credible is to follow a set of research-based principles. In the News Evaluator, these principles are being used for teaching digital source criticism.
Using the News Evaluator support users’ abilities to conduct lateral-reading and use digital tools when evaluating news (texts, images and videos) and hereby improve their abilities to separate fake news from real news like professional fact-checkers do. The significant impact of the self-test has been proven in a published scientific study with randomized control groups in two experiments.
Background
The News Evaluator project started in 2017 as a mass experiment run as part of the European Researchers’ Night in Sweden. A second phase of the project began in 2018 and continued until spring 2021 with the aim to develop a tool that can be used by both schools and the general public. The tool is now available to use for anyone who wants to improve their ability to spot fake news.
As part of the second phase of the project, a News Evaluator Election Special was run in September 2018, whereby pupils helped researchers investigate political news in young people’s digital feeds prior to the Swedish general election. A revised and translated version of the digital tool was also used by thousands of Danish teenagers in September 2019.
The News Evaluator is a collaboration between the Swedish non-profit organisation VA (Public & Science), Uppsala University and the research institute RISE. The project is funded by Vinnova and Uppsala University.
Take The News Evaluator to your country!
As of today, The News Evaluator is available in Swedish and English. Would you like to have The News Evaluator in your language? That could be arranged! Please get in touch (see below) to know more.
More information?
For more information, please contact Thomas Nygren, Professor at Uppsala University and project manager for The News Evaluator.