At the 2017 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference, 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton addressed thousands of librarians and information professionals. Clinton praised librarians for being on the front lines working for the benefit of their communities, and in particular, for encouraging literacy, reading, and the development of “curious, brave, informed citizens.” She also commended libraries for safeguarding the First Amendment and providing services and resources to immigrants and refugees. However, it was Clinton’s assessment of librarianship’s most urgent battle that garnered deafening cheers and an ovation. She said that librarians “have to be on the front lines of one of the most important fights we have ever faced in history in this country: the right to defend truth and reason, evidence and facts” (ABC News 2017). In this post-truth age librarians are more important than ever.
Fake, or fabricated, news is expressly disseminated for the sake of earning money from clicks and views, and it is also used to mislead and misinform. With astonishing speed, fake news goes viral without being vetted or confirmed. Even if such information is eventually retracted or disproved, the damage has already been done and the false information remains digitally archived. This scenario played out in real time, and in epic proportions, in the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election. Now, after the election, increasing attention is being paid to fake news. But fake news is not new, nor are its relatives: hoaxes, satire, algorithmic biases, lies, alternative facts (NBC News 2017), and propaganda. It just has an alarming new veneer.1
It is also true that librarians have been engaged, and been pioneers, in the business of teaching information literacy skills and promoting critical thinking for decades, but this work has, in light of recent events, taken on new meaning and relevance for the public. Now librarians are being called upon to use our information literacy skills to help debunk and decipher fake news. We have a prime opportunity to help our communities and constituents become critical and savvy information consumers, which in turn benefits our nation’s democracy. Librarians combating fake news and strengthening the critical thinking skills of our patrons is what this report is all about. This report will address the renewed phenomenon of fake news and its related concepts and discuss how a knowledge of information behavior and critical information evaluation skills can aid in combating the effects of fake news.
1. “Alternative facts” is a phrase used by U.S. Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway during a Meet the Press interview on January 22, 2017. During the interview Conway attempted to defend and sugarcoat alleged lies told by President Trump and former press secretary Sean Spicer. Meet the Press host Chuck Todd responded to Conway by stating that “alternative facts aren’t facts, they are falsehoods.”