False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.
—Plato
This part of the book presents a variety of characteristics and issues that need to be examined to distinguish between real and fake news. These characteristics and issues provide “look for” indicators that are minimally essential for distinguishing real and fake news. These “look for” indicators do not provide all of the possible ways to evaluate the news, but do provide indicators that give greater confidence to identify real and fake news.
A wide range of needed characteristics and issues to evaluate the news is presented. The students will need to apply relevant skills including critical thinking, media literacy, and data literacy.
The wide range of issues and varying levels of complexity of the “look for” indicators permit an educator to develop instructional activities consistent with the developmental levels of students. Educators can then prepare lessons from basic to advanced levels.
Real-world examples of fake and inaccurate news are also included to engage students in the importance of the topics. The hope is that students will be engaged and prepared to participate as future citizens to identify and use truthful real news rather than fake news when making decisions.