MEDIABIAS.fyi

Check a claim before you share it

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Posters and handouts

Three print-ready pieces below. Use your browser's print dialog and choose Save as PDF if you want a file. Everything is free to print, copy and hand out, including by libraries, schools and community organisations.

Set your printer to Portrait, and turn OFF headers and footers so the page numbers and URL do not print over the design.

Before you share it

The four moves

  1. Stop. Notice the reaction. Content built to travel is built to produce a feeling first.
  2. Investigate the source. New tab. Who funds it? Not their About page.
  3. Find the original. Reverse image search. Find the full clip, not the eight seconds.
  4. Trace the claim. No link is not a citation. No denominator is not a statistic.

mediabias.fyi · free · no account · no tracking

Learn to name it

Twelve manipulation tactics

  • FramingSame facts, chosen arrangement
  • Missing denominator"Up 300%" of what?
  • Recycled imageryReal photo, false caption
  • Emotional baitReaction before thought
  • False balanceFringe presented as a side
  • Engagement amplificationOutrage ranks higher
  • Just asking questionsAccusation with deniability
  • UnfalsifiabilityNo evidence could disprove it
  • Fabricated screenshotOne minute to make
  • Synthetic mediaCheck provenance, not pixels
  • Pretexting and urgencyAct now, check never
  • AstroturfingVolume dressed as consensus

Full reference at mediabias.fyi/tactics

For whoever is running the table

Fifteen-minute session script

  1. Consent and pre-test, about 4 minutes. "This is an eight-question study for a Columbus State media literacy project. No name, no email, nothing leaves your phone. You can stop any time." Hand them the tablet at mediabias.fyi/study.
  2. Write down their code. It looks like A6-70: form, score out of eight, average confidence. That is all you record.
  3. The four moves, 2 minutes. Use one item they got wrong. Do not lecture. Show the check you would have run.
  4. Three items together, about 4 minutes. From the public challenge. Talk it out loud with them.
  5. Post-test, about 4 minutes. Same page, Test B. Write down the second code.
  6. Give them the card and the site address. Thank them.

Do not tell anyone their score is good or bad, and do not argue about politics. Someone with a low score who leaves with the card is the success case.

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