Thursday

TWW Louisville Member Spotlight - You?!

Member Spotlight

You!? - Could you be a challenger?!

As of right now, 13 of 19 Republican State Senate seats are going unchallenged.
Three of them are in the Jefferson County area.

District 26


District 36


District 38


We need challengers in statewide
Senate Districts
 2, 6, 8, 12, 14, 16, 20, 24, 26, 30, 34, 36, and 38.
Could you or someone you know be that challenger?

Running for local office is scary, but there are more resources available than ever before.
This article lists almost a dozen organizations offering candidate training.

There are also new organizations raising money for progressive candidates.
Swing Left alone has raised over $3 million so far for the eventual winner of certain district primaries. There are grassroots organizations like Postcards to Voters, which has thousands of volunteers all over the country writing hundreds of thousands of postcards supporting candidates for everything from local school board to state senate. There’s never been a better time to run.

The deadline to file is January 30, 2018 so get started today!

Understanding Fake News

Building a Fact-Based Reality: Understanding Fake News

Ellen Birkett Morris

From completely fabricated stories to misunderstood satire, stories that look like news can be completely false. But fake news has real consequences. It can sway elections, ruin reputations and cause violence as it did when a man fired a rifle in a Washington, D.C. 
pizza restaurant.


How do you make sense of information in an environment where the president labels real news as “fake news” and Russian hackers and conspiracy theorists spread fake news on the internet that is designed to look real?

Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter, and Melissa Zimdars, an assistant professor of communication and media at Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass., offered tips to identify fake news. You can find the full article HERE

Pay Attention to the Domain and URL

Established news organizations usually own their domains and they have a standard look that you are probably familiar with. Sites with such endings like ".com.co" should make you raise your eyebrows and tip you off that you need to dig around more to see if they can be trusted. This is true even when the site looks professional and has semi-recognizable logos. For example, abcnews.com is a legitimate news source, but abcnews.com.co is not despite its similar appearance.

Read the "About Us" Section

Most sites will have a lot of information about the news outlet, the company that runs it, members of leadership, and the mission and ethics statement behind an organization. The language used here is straightforward. If it's melodramatic and seems overblown, you should be skeptical. Also, you should be able to find out more information about the organization's leaders in places other than that site.

Look at the Quotes in a Story

Or rather, look at the lack of quotes. Most publications have multiple sources in each story who are professionals and have expertise in the fields they talk about. If it's a serious or controversial issue, there are more likely to be quotes — and lots of them. Look for professors or other academics who can speak to the research they've done. And if they are talking about research, look up those studies.

Look at Who Said Them

Then see who said the quotes and what they said. Are they a reputable source with a title that you can verify through a quick Google search? Say you're looking at a story and it says President Obama said he wanted to take everyone's guns away. And then there's a quote. Obama is an official who has almost everything he says recorded and archived. There are transcripts for pretty much any address or speech he has given. Google those quotes. See what the speech was about, who he was addressing and when it happened. Even if he did an exclusive interview with a publication, that same quote will be referenced in other stories, saying he said it while talking to the original publication.

Check the Comments

A lot of these fake and misleading stories are shared on social media platforms. Headlines are meant to get the reader's attention, but they're also supposed to accurately reflect what the story is about. Lately that hasn't been the case. Headlines often will be written in exaggerated language with the intention of being misleading, and then attached to stories that are about a completely different topic or just not true. These stories usually generate a lot of comments on Facebook or Twitter. If a lot of these comments call out the article for being fake or misleading, it probably is.

Reverse Image Search

A picture should be accurate in illustrating what the story is about. This often doesn't happen. If people who write these fake news stories don't even leave their homes or interview anyone for the stories, it's unlikely they take their own pictures. Do a little detective work and reverse search for the image on Google. You can do this by right-clicking on the image and choosing to search Google for it. If the image is appearing on a lot of stories about many different topics, there's a good chance it's not actually an image of what it says it was on the first story.

These tips are just a start at determining what type of news an article is. Zimdars outlined these and others in a guide for her studentsIf you take these steps, you're helping yourself and you're helping others by not increasing the circulation of these stories.

And you won't be the only one trying to stop the spread of this false content. The company leaders behind the platforms these stories are shared on are trying to figure out how to fix the issue from their side, but they are also trying to make sure not to limit anyone's right to freedom of speech. It's a tricky position to be in, but they've said they'll try. 

In the end, it really does depend on taking responsibility and being an engaged consumer of news.

Satire Sites

Here's one last thing. Satirical publications exist and serve a purpose, but are clearly labeled as exaggerated and humorous by the writers and owners. Some of the more well-known ones like The Onion and ClickHole use satire to talk about current events. If people don't understand that, they might take them seriously and then share these articles after reading them. If this happens or if you see your friends sharing blatantly fake news, be a friend and kindly tell them it's not real. Don't shy away from these conversations even if they might be uncomfortable. As I said earlier, everyone has to help fix the fake news problem.

Here is another resource for finding fake news:

If you want to take it step further try this game that helps sort out the real from the fake:
Help take back our democracy and become an activist for the truth.


Identify and Combat Fake News



http://www.allgeneralizationsarefalse.com/the-chart-version-3-0-what-exactly-are-we-reading/

How to Identify and Combat Fake News
Amanda Clark

Remember when fake news only appeared in grocery store tabloids? Those were the days. Now fake news in much more insidious and dangerous. While Trump likes to label information he doesn’t like as “fake news,” in reality fake news means propaganda. Russia has been perfecting propaganda since the Cold War, and they used it to interfere with the 2016 election. But how? And what can we do to combat it?


Russian troll farms created thousands of fake accounts on social media and used them to spread divisive messages about HiIlary Clinton, immigration, guns, and other issues. They also created fake organizations like Secured Borders and LGBT United which paid for ads that reached 126 million people on Facebook alone. Some ads used sophisticated microtargeting to reach people in swing states like Michigan and Wisconsin. The Russians even used fake organizations to trick Americans into attending rallies and even protest each other. This didn’t end with the election. They are still stoking tensions today, particularly on racial issues -- for example, arguing both sides of the NFL players kneeling issue. Their goal is to sow discord among Americans and it is working.


So what can be done to combat fake news? It’s difficult to debunk a rumor once it spreads, and even the act of repeating the rumor to debunk it can reinforce the rumor. People tend to double down on deeply held beliefs when presented with evidence that disproves them.

But if you are going to try, Michael Shermer offers these suggestions on how to change people’s minds:

  • Keep emotions out of the exchange
  • Discuss, don't attack
  • Listen carefully and try to articulate the other position accurately
  • Show respect
  • Acknowledge that you understand why someone might hold that opinion
  • Try to show how changing facts does not necessarily mean changing worldviews
Since debunking fake news is so difficult, it is better to stop it from spreading in the first place. It is important to recognize that every media outlet has bias, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t presenting facts. Here is a chart of popular news outlets arranged by bias and also by how fact-based they are. Being a savvy news consumer is critical. Use reputable sources and always read the whole article before commenting or sharing. Verify the information presented by clicking on links to the source material to see if it supports the claims in the article. Also, verify the information in at least two other reputable sources. The more outrageous the claim, the more important it is to verify before spreading.


Being a savvy media consumer also means thinking about the purpose of the information being presented. One of the main purposes of provocative headlines is to be clickbait, because clicks are how money is made. You probably recognize headlines like “follow this one simple trick” as being advertisements. But fake news can be advertisements too. One teenager in Macedonia got rich off of people clicking on his completely fabricated news during the 2016 election.

How can you identify fake news? FactCheck.org offers the following advice:


  • Consider the source. Is it the real web address of a legitimate media outlet or something that looks similar? Is it a real newspaper (ex., The Boston Globe) or a fake newspaper (ex., The Boston Tribune)?
  • Is there a byline, and if so, is it a real person
  • Read the source material. Sometimes the studies, articles, databases, etc., being cited don’t support the claim being made at all.
  • Check the date. If an event occurred two years ago or more, then the current president can’t take credit for it.
  • Make sure it’s not satire. For example, The Borowitz Report is a satirical news column that people sometimes mistake for real news.


Being a savvy media consumer is important, but few will make the effort. Shouldn’t the system be doing something about fake news? The 2018 election is almost here and there is little evidence that any safeguards have been put in place. We won’t get any help from Trump, of course, but Congress should make recommendations for meaningful changes when they complete their investigations. We need to hold Congress accountable.

Social media organizations like Facebook and Google have pledged to do something about fake news, but they recently promoted hoaxes after the Las Vegas shooting, proving that they have a lot more work to do. Facebook has agreed to start labeling disputed articles, but won’t take them down. We need to hold social media companies accountable as well. As elections approach, we need to demand that our elected officials prevent further meddling. Stay tuned to TWW Louisville for actions you can take in 2018.


For more info:

Sunday

How to contact your legislators - what to say and why it matters


 A Series of Educational Videos
Contacting Your Legislators


Kentucky Legislature

1-800-372-7181


How to contact your legislators - what to say and why it matters

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Together We Will

When you call the person who answers will look up your legislators 
one State Senator and one House Representative for each address 
and will have each time you call going forward. 

But, here's a handy link to look it up if you would like.  http://www.lrc.ky.gov/Find%20Your%20Legislator/Find%20Your%20Legislator.html



 Personal stories help make your voice heard


Contact your legislators even if you agree with them!

When is the next legislative session? 
UPDATE January 2 - April 13

Make sure to program the LRC Message Line # into your phone: 


1-800-372-7181


Things to Know:
  •      You may call daily
  •      You may call about multiple issues each day 
  •      You may call about the same issue daily
  •      Call even if your legislator agrees with you!
  •      You can simply state your position. Or, add a personal story. Personal stories make a difference. Think about how issues affect you and tell that to the person answering the phone.


·        These calls MATTER - they turn into 'green slips' that your legislator can literally hold up to show 'your' support for an issue.