Editorial: Digital Age challenges us to be discerning news consumers
You may have read the report that a huge asteroid of the size that wiped out the dinosaurs is heading this way and due to crash into the Atlantic Ocean before the end of the month.
Like many stories told on the World Wide Web and through social media, this one is patently false. (And thankfully so.)
The Digital Age brings a world of information to our fingertips, and that is a marvel to be celebrated.
But sadly, it brings a world of misinformation to our fingertips as well.
Some of these are hoaxes that promote a vested interest or point of view. Some are hoaxes created as someone's idea of fun. Some are works of satire that get passed along as reality by those who don't get the joke. Some are simply products of confusion or ignorance.
The cases of misinformation are so prevalent that websites have sprung up to evaluate the accuracy of suspected hoaxes and The Washington Post devotes a weekly column to the latest examples of them.
Last week, we took in a mid-America Press Institute seminar in DeKalb and were mesmerized by example after example of false Web stories that Peter D. Adams of the News Literacy Project pointed out.
The News Literacy Project, according to its website, thenewsliteracyproject.org, "teaches that all information is not created equal. It uses the standards of quality journalism as an aspirational yardstick to determine what information to believe, share and act on. It also fosters an understanding of the role of a free press in a democracy."
The phenomenon of phony stories on the Web doesn't extend simply to the written word. Pictures and video can often be misleading. There was a case earlier this year of a photo of riot-torn Baltimore burning. Only it wasn't Baltimore. It was a photo from Venezuela.
All of this should serve to remind us to be discerning news consumers. And to teach our children and grandchildren to be discerning too.
Critical thinking skills are probably the most important learning skills there are.
Frankly, this always has been the case. We're in the news business and like most of our colleagues in both print and broadcast, we aim to get things right.
But even the most conscientious among us can make mistakes. And any of us can be influenced by biases we're not even aware we have.
Be discerning. Challenge information that doesn't add up or seem to square.
And when it comes to being discerning, don't believe information just because you agree with it or disbelieve simply because you disagree.
Ultimately, challenging your own biases is as important a part of news literacy as challenging what you read.