Everyday in our lives the news will always exist. Although ever stop to wonder if any of the news that they put out is even true? If anything they could have been lying to everyone and not one person could have known about it but that right there is called fake news. What is fake news anyways? Fake news is when information that gets out about the real world on live t.v, or a news channel, or even the news article that is a lie. During the year on 2016 it was the year of fake news and since then in 2017 it became really hard to notice the difference between real news and fake news. The two can even have a bias perspective as an example! In case you don’t know what bias is, Its an act of only one’s perspective or just choosing one side of a case instead if allowing both sides of the case. Although for today, allow me to show you why is it important to spot fake news by using Design Thinking.

Why Is It Important To Spot Fake News?–

           We all watch the news and I bet we even question if the news we watch is even true. That’s why it’s important to spot fake news. Spotting fake news can actually help us in our everyday lives so that we don’t get informed with the wrong information about politics, our environment, or even real life situation. There are many ways in order to spot them which is what I’m going to be able to teach you today! Spotting fake news may be hard but it’s a lot easier than what you honestly think.

Strategies –

• A way to spot fake news is by using the “E.S.C.A.P.E” Method. Each letter represents a different way to spot fake news.

– “E” This – letter represents “Evidence” If the facts hold up? When doing evidence you must check out the numbers, name, places, and the documents. 

–“S” This second letter represents “Source” To know who made the article and if you are able to trust them or not. For this you must check the author, publisher, founders, aggregation, as well as social media users.

-“C” This third letter represents “Context” Which is to find the big picture. For this you’ll need to check for the current events, current trends, as well as political goals and even financial pressures.

-“A” This is the fourth letter which represents “Audience” Which to see who is the audience intended for? For this you must look at the image choices. presentation techniques, language, and finally the context. 

-“P” This is the fifth letter which represents “purpose” For this you’ll need to find out the publisher mission (goal), presentation, persuasive language or an images, money making tactics, stated or unstated agendas, as well as calls to action. 

-“E”  The final last letter represents “Execution” Which is how the information presented. When doing so you’ll need to look at the style, the grammar, and the tone, as well as the image choices and even the placements and layouts.

Using the “E.S.C.A.P.E” Method is a very good way in identifying fake news but it’s just one way, allow me to introduce you into another method.

• This way may be short although another way to identify fake news is by looking at the search bar of the website at the very far right you should be able to see a tiny green lock and that represents that the website is very protected and will save your information if you put any. If the website doesn’t show a green lock then that website could be a scam which can steal your information.
• Another method that can come in use is by checking all the way down on the website to see if its by anyway to just see if anything is wrong with the website and to be sure to do your research on anything you think that looks wrong in the website.

 

Design Thinking–

Through this whole unit I was able to use the design thinking method which are the  5 D’s. In case you don’t know what they are..

1. Discover
2. Define
3. design
4. Develop
5. Deliver

The way that they work is by Discovering the issue to address then Define the specific problem, after you must Design and test the product, then Develop and refine our solution, and finally Deliver our final product. 

During this unit I was able to use the 5 D’s in order to able to create my deliverable which is this blog post. First one is discover. The way that I was able to use discover was by figuring out that there is fake news and we must know about it or else we will get fake information in our heads. After I was able to define the situation which was any websites such as a news website, a website used for helping children and family, ECT. Sure they may seem real but are they really? Next, I was able to design my strategies which are used to help me and others to figure out if the websites we are looking at are fake or not. Then, I must develop the solution which is to state if the website is fake or not. Last but not least, I was able to create my deliverable which was this explaining everything I learned about fake news and how to spot them and as well as how they are used and are able to be  used by the design thinking process.