Key Vocabulary

1. Reading Upstream – Follow a link within a news story or social media post directly to the original source of information or the primary sources referenced.
2. Missing Context – A clip or an excerpt of an authentic statement, photo or video that is presented in a misleading way so that it seems to mean something different than what was intended.
3. Keyword Search – Words and phrases that users type into search engines to find information on a particular topic online.
4. Click Restraint – The idea that you should restrain from clicking on the first several results of a keyword search.

Before You Watch

Make up a sentence and play the game of "telephone" using one of these phrases. How did the message or context change from the original source to the final version?

While You Watch

Preview the questions. Then answer them while you watch the MediaWise Teen-Fact Checking Network (TFCN) video.

1. What two red flags indicate that you should fact-check information found online or on social media?
2. Circle the three keyword search words or phrases used to find a credible second source of information?
   ANTARCTIC — MELTING ICE CAPS — ZOMBIE CLAIMS — PERMAFROST — ANCIENT VIRUSES — CLIMATE CHANGE
3. The teen fact-checker used a strategy called reading upstream to find the original study published in the The Proceedings of Natural Sciences scientific journal. How could you determine if that is a reliable source?
4. Circle the correct two pieces of important missing context about the ability of zombie viruses discovered by reading laterally and reading upstream?
   • The viruses replicate when warmed by sunlight
   • The frozen viruses found only can infect amoeba, not humans
   • The frozen viruses are related to an ancient COVID-19 strain
   • The viruses are conditioned to only live in extreme cold conditions

After You Watch

1. Why would social media users misrepresent a study to evoke a strong emotion?
2. What makes a good keyword search?
3. How can you determine if a source from a keyword search is reliable and credible?
4. Why is it important to practice “click restraint” when sorting through keyword search results?
5. Why is it important to read laterally and read upstream to check for missing context?

Background Reading

• NPR: Are there zombie viruses in the thawing permafrost?
• Scientific American: As Earth warms, the diseases that may lie within permafrost become a bigger worry
• Smithsonian Magazine: Scientists extract 15,000-year-old viruses from Tibetan glacier

About the Next Lesson

Lesson 04—Trick or Truth—will teach students how to do an effective long-tail keyword search and find out why it’s important to be wary when social media posts evoke a strong emotion.

Standards

Common Core ELA
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.8.3 Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, evaluating the soundness of the reasoning and relevance and sufficiency of the evidence and identifying when irrelevant evidence is introduced.

College, Career, and Civic Framework (C3)
D3.1.9-12 Gather relevant information from multiple sources representing a wide range of views while using the origin, authority, structure, context, and corroborative value of the sources to guide the selection.

Common Core History and Social Studies
9-10.RH.1. Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.

These lessons were developed by PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs in partnership with MediaWise and the Teen Fact-Checking Network, which are part of the Poynter Institute. This partnership has been made possible with support from Google.