This Fake News workshop is run by the ‘detecting deception’ librarians from Manchester Metropolitan University Library.  It was developed over several years for students from different subject disciplines to support their academic careers (critical thinking and analytical skills) and their professional development and employability skills.

The workshop is open to students and members of the public as part of the inaugural Manchester Libraries Festival, join us via Microsoft Teams.

In a world swirling with fake news, scroll culture, clickbait and information overload how do we separate truth and fact from fake news?  During this workshop we will discuss what is meant by fake news and its co-conspirators misinformation and disinformation and they have a long and inglorious history.  After a brief interruption from some (online) cats we will investigate the psychological, technological and societal factors at work that make us vulnerable to fake news.  We then take a news story posted online recently and interrogate it as a group to see whether it’s real, fake or merely misleading.  Using this investigatory experience, we will create a useful checklist for combatting fake news.

Manchester Metropolitan University librarians Louise Frith and Sarah Webb have developed this workshop over several years and are now taking it out on the road so why not come along for the fake news adventure!