Lesson 4 Be Smart in the Digital World
Fake or Fact, That Is the Question
British writer ____ Butler wanted to experiment with how easily one can manipulate public opinion online.
He created a fake ____ called The Shed at Dulwich.
Butler set up an account for his “restaurant” ____ a popular online review site.
He did not provide an exact address ____ wrote it was reservations only.
He did this to make people ____ The Shed was a special restaurant.
He faked ____ of The Shed’s food with shaving cream, whitening tablets, and even his own foot.
____ then asked his friends to write favorable fake reviews on the review site.
Things quickly got
Things quickly got, in Butler’s words, “a ____ out of hand.”
From the lowest of the charts of the review site, The Shed continuously climbed ____ London rankings.
He started ____ e-mails and phone calls requesting reservations.
Interest further increased when he told ____ The Shed was “fully booked for the next six weeks.”
Even funnier, food suppliers started guessing The Shed’s address and sent him ____ samples, and many job applications came in.
These things happened without Butler serving a ____ meal.
The Shed eventually became London’s number-one restaurant on one ____ the most trusted restaurant review sites.
According to Butler, The ____ held that ranking for two weeks.
Butler’s story shows that
Butler’s story shows that much of what we ____ on the Internet cannot be trusted.
This emphasizes the importance ____ digital literacy.
Digital literacy is about ____ than just using computers.
It is the ability to use digital technology to find, evaluate, create, ____ communicate information.
To become digitally literate, we need ____ develop an attitude and knowledge that enable us to detect false information online.
False information is any information that ____ or deceives people.
It can be about anything such ____ health, the environment, and economics across many platforms.
It can be influential, as ____ Shed incident shows.
If people had been digitally literate
If people had been digitally literate, they ____ not have been fooled by The Shed experiment so easily.
Digitally literate people would have ____ considered information about The Shed without being distracted by other people’s reactions.
They would have been suspicious that the restaurant did not ____ an address.
____ would have wondered why reviews on the restaurant did not appear in other more credible media.
If they had done ____ things, they would likely have suspected that something was not right.
Fortunately, The Shed incident was an experiment that caused little ____
However, false information ____ cause emotional or financial harm to people.
For example, false ____ about a certain gender or belief group can stir up hatred against that group.
It can cause fights between those who support the group and ____ who do not.
In addition, misleading online reviews about questionable products often ____ people into wasting money.
To avoid being deceived
To avoid being deceived by false information, ____ need to develop a habit of critically evaluating what we see online.
If you see a story that looks too good or too bad to be true, ____ the source first.
____ at the website the story comes from.
Does it look real? Are there spelling errors? Does ____ have other stories or just the one you read?
Check that the story contains references ____ links to other information.
Click on those links and see if the ____ information looks reliable.
Websites with false information often do not have many real stories about ____ topics.
They also often have ____ of advertisements that pop up when you visit the sites.
You should then check ____ credibility of the content creator.
If a story has no writer’s name, this could be a sign that its content is ____
If there is a name, find ____ what and where the person has reported before.
If ____ person has not written anything else or writes for a website that looks unreliable, think twice before believing the content.
Finally
____ check who else is reporting the story.
If no ____ media are reporting the same story, the story may not be true.
Pick a few keywords from the story and put them in a search site to ____ if other media are supporting the story.
Sorting through the vast amount of information created and shared online ____ challenging.
However, it is important that we know what false information is and how ____ spreads.
The better we recognize false information, the better we will be at avoiding it and ____ others do the same.