Members of NMU’s Student Leader Fellowship Program (SLFP) learned how to critically read sources as well as distinguish misinformation from disinformation on Sept. 29. Center for Student Enrichment Graduate Assistant Gwen Feamster hosted this event as a Skill Builder Workshop.
The purpose of this event was to teach students how to interact with the news and to not believe everything they see online without diving deeper first.
“It’s so important to be an engaged person in society, but to be engaged, you have to be able to critically read your news, because unfortunately all news is not fair news,” Feamster said. “[We covered] how to look for and prevent bias and how to distinguish AI in the news.”
Students then learned about minsinformation, the accidental spreading of false information, and disinformation, purposely spreading false information.
“Your first step in avoiding these things is to search for misinformation or disinformation,” said Feamster. “When I do it, I first look at the author and ask, what makes them qualified? Are they an expert in their field? Have they written on a topic before?”
Feamster then shared that students should get comfortable with figuring out the intended audience of an article and ensure that they are looking at information from both sides of an argument or topic to get all of the necessary information.
Next, Feamster touched on how to distinguish a real picture from an AI-generated picture.
“I think the biggest tell with AI, even though AI is getting smart about it, is looking at the number of fingers and toes,” Feamster said. “That’s a big way to realize that something is AI.”
Students agreed that the Skill Builder was very informational and allowed them to learn more about how to be more conscious of the news they are consuming.
“I think these events are really good for students, especially just to gain basic skills such as reading critical sources, communication and leadership,” said junior Elsa Limberg.
Limberg added that she thinks it’s important to search for the facts and analyze them, which means staying away from biased media.
