Blog Post #2

RumorGuard: The News Literacy Project’s RumorGuard is used to identify what is said in the national news is or isn’t true. If you click on the “recent checks” tab at the top of the home page, it will give you several news headlines that they fact checked. I clicked on the headline about whether or not Pete Buttigieg claimed that one of the reasons for the bridge collapse in Baltimore was due to racism using an old clip of his. When I clicked on the headline I cann see what claims are and aren’t true based on what he was accused of saying. In this example, one claim was determined to be false and the two others were determined to be true. On the right side, it gives me a quick rundown on the takeaways for how false claims are made on social media and what they would include. When I scroll further down, there is a breakdown of the 5 factors used to determine whether this claim is true or not. The 5 factors used are the source the video is coming from, the evidence surrounding the claims, the context of the video/claim in question, how authentic is the piece of media and is the reasoning used for why something is or isn’t based on reality. In this case, the website determined that the video was not posted by a credible source, none of the claims are backed up with evidence and the context of the video is not accurate as it took place at a different time from the collapse of the bridge. 

Game: I played the game Bad News. I enjoyed it and it took about 15-20 minutes. The way the game worked is I had to pretend that I was a reliable source by impersonating an official twitter account and building what looks like a reliable news website. With those tools, I was tasked with spreading disinformation online to get my followers up using 6 simple steps. First I impersonated the president and faked sending a tweet out on an account that looked very similar to him and then I built a website called Honest Online News. That gave me a few followers. Next up I had to play into the emotions of the public through fearmongering to gain more followers. After that I had to be divisive and give an opinion on something to get others who agree with my opinion to follow me. Coming up with a conspiracy theory that looked real was the next step to get people to believe me and build credibility. Using a GIF to discredit an article about climate change was the next thing I did. I had to attack what’s considered credible sources and hit back at them by coming up with a fake headline that would get people to believe they were hiding something from the public. Lastly I had to start trolling what are credible sources so my followers would see it and turn on them as well. Once I did all of that, I successfully built up enough followers and got enough viewers on the website to be viewed as a credible news source in the public. 

Reflection: I thought both of these tools were great educational techniques to allow people to know what is and isn’t credible news. They were both easy to understand and did a good job of explaining why something may not be true and how to check to make sure it is true. Neither are that time consuming either so anyone could use them.

Blog Post #3

Step 1 – Finding the claim

The claim I found was on Twitter. One of my friends retweeted this tweet on his account. The tweet claims that “babying” or limiting the innings of a young pitcher early in their career does not make a difference in keeping them healthy long term. This was a claim made by a Miami Marlins fans after the news came out earlier in the day that starting pitcher Eury Perez of the Miami Marlins, a 20-year old rising star in the game, would be out for the entire 2024 season due to Tommy John surgery, a very serious elbow surgery that is a regular occurrence for pitchers but comes with a rehab timetable of 12+ months. The claim stems from the fact that in 2023, the Marlins limited Perez to just 91.1 innings (19 starts) in his rookie season as a way to keep him fresh and healthy both in the short and long term. 

Step 2 – Asking the obvious. Did limiting the innings for Perez in his rookie season save him from a future injury?

No, it did not. Despite the Marlins best efforts in 2023 to save him, he wound up needing surgery and being ruled out for the 2024 season before his sophomore season ever began. It was announced by several baseball reporters on the morning of 4/4/24 that he was going to get Tommy John surgery.

Step 3 – Finding additional evidence to support or reject the claim that limiting the innings of pitchers early on will keep them healthy.

I remember reading this article weeks ago on The Athletic about what is leading to pitcher injuries, specifically elbow and shoulder issues. One of the more well known team physicians and a top orthopedic surgeon in the world, Dr. Keith Meister who is also the head physician for the Texas Rangers, says that what is leading to these injuries is not the number of innings pitchers are throwing but rather the stuff that they throw. In recent seasons, MLB has placed a bigger emphasis on throwing nasty offspeed pitches. Dr. Meister specifically mentions that pitchers throwing more changeups and sweepers is what is causing more elbow injuries. The more types of pitches a pitcher throws, the wider variety of grips and arm angles the pitcher is using that is not natural for the elbow which causes more strain to the elbow and shoulder ligaments. He says that teams have shifted away from pitcher availability by not having them throw the nastiest stuff and more towards pitcher performance with an emphasis on throwing nastier pitches. The article states that in 2010, there were only 241 instances where a pitcher was placed on the injured list but in 2021 that number rose all the way to 552. Those numbers slightly decreased in 2022 and 2023 but still remain well above the pace of pitcher injuries in 2010. https://theathletic.com/5325032/2024/03/08/elbow-injuries-mlb-pitchers/

Conclusion – Going back to the original claim that limiting young pitchers does not help them stay healthy long term, through my research I found out that was a true statement. One red flag that I noticed with this claim is that it was made by a regular fan and not by someone who is either an expert on this topic or someone who works on an MLB team. It turns out that this claim was in fact proven to be true. The two pieces of evidence I found to prove this claim to be true was that the player still got injured the season after he had his innings limited and an article in The Athletic where a well known team physician in MLB talked about what is leading to more of these injuries is because of teams prioritizing pitchers having better stuff and throwing different pitches such as changeups and sweepers. Given that I am a baseball fan that has watched baseball for years, I was not too skeptical of this claim nor was I surprised of my findings when going through the process of figuring out whether the claim was true or not. It’s important for others to verify claims like this made by random fans because they are not in the know nearly as much as the best elbow surgeons and they don’t have the data on hand that teams have to either refute or support this claim. 

Blog Post #4

Instagram: Instagram takes misinformation very seriously and has a process in place to make sure it is handled. Instagram works with third-party fact checkers to review all information put on their platform to make sure it is accurate. They have also recently expanded partnerships to fact checkers all across the world to continue to help monitor any misinformation. When a third-party fact checker rates something as false information, Instagram then takes over and makes sure to reduce it’s spread on the platform by removing the hashtags and someone’s ability to find it on the explore tab in the app. Another way to potential false information to get to fact checkers is users having the ability to flag a post for potential false information and it’ll get sent to a fact checker for review. I’ve seen it myself on the platform and the way they notify viewers of false information on their page is that when you see a post that is false, before being able to a view it the post will be covered by a false information screen. It even gives you a hyperlink to the reasoning they labeled it false information if you click on the “see why” tab. I believe Instagram is handling the fight against misinformation correctly. They have a system in place where posts are checked by independent fact checkers across the U.S. and world, they allow users to report potential misinformation and when something is flagged as false information, they make it harder for people to access that content to reduce it’s spread while notifying users of a post that has been deemed false. By giving users a heads up about something being false, Instagram can not be accused to knowingly spreading misinformation without letting it’s viewers know that what they are about to see could be false. In my experiences with the platform, I have been flagged a couple times for potentially posting false information on my story but it usually stays up but just with the warning in front of it that I have to bypass to see what I posted. Combatting Misinformation on Instagram Instagram Will Automatically Give Fact-Checking in Order to Reduce False Information – Exibart Street

TikTok: While TikTok also partners with independent fact checkers to look at information on their platform, they also use a different way to identify misinformation while bypassing fact checkers. If other posts similar to the post in question have been deemed to be false, that post will be cross examined to determine the accuracy or inaccuracy of the information provided in the video. For example, if posts in the past have been removed due to spreading false claims about the election and another post is discovered that is similar to those that have been removed, instead of sending it to a fact checker it will just be cross examined with the other posts relating to the post in question and then a determination is made whether or not the post if false. Whereas Instagram gives a warning to viewers about false information before viewing it, TikTok just adds a warning at the bottom of a video letting people know that it may be false or inaccurate in some way but you can still view the content right away as opposed to bypassing a message to clear off the post. When I used to post political content on TikTok, I myself would sometimes get flagged for either potential false information I included in a video or others would see a warning at the bottom of my video. I’ve even reported several videos on TikTok due to potentially being false information. When I do that, I will get a notification in my TikTok inbox through the app that the content in question has been received and will be reviewed. While it seems that TikTok does not go to quite the drastic measures that Instagram does to erase false information from their platform or let someone know it may be false before viewing it, I believe that still letting viewers know what you are watching may be false is a good strategy and also allows TikTok to not be potentially held responsible for those that claim they are exposing others to misinformation and don’t do anything about it. Integrity and Authenticity – Community Guidelines

Misinformation Education Creation Activity

How To Spot Misinformation Presentation

Target Audience/Explanation: Teenagers (13-19) 

I believe the most important years of anyone’s life are their teenage years. In your teenage years, it is where you are learning the most about the life you will be entering as you go through middle school and high school and are learning how to become more independent. 

Method/Medium + Why It Is Effective:

Given that people in this age groups use social media a lot and are very familiar with technology, just about everything they consume is visual. Because younger people tend to be more visual learners, putting together a slideshow presentation to present as if I were talking in 

front of an auditorium or classroom full of students would probably be the most effective way to present this topic. I could have easily chosen to make Instagram posts or a TikTok video but I chose to put together a slideshow presentation because I felt that it would be easier to teach it to a group of students in a classroom setting and I believe it is important to be teaching these skills in school as teenagers get ready to face the realities of the real world. Teenagers also use social media in their downtime as entertainment and they don’t want to have to listen to educational videos or read educational posts during their free time.

References

Defining Misinformation

The CRAAP Test

Teaching Students To Identify Misinformation