Journalistic truth is not absolute. It is the best obtainable version of the truth based on verified facts up to that point of publication. News reporting builds over time. — Key takeaways Truth (journalistic truth) Journalistic truth is the best obtainable version of the truth based on verified facts up to that point of publication. News reporting is a continuing journey towards finding the truth as our understanding can only build over time.

Algorithms are not some mysterious magic behind social media services. Users can control what they see to a certain degree if they know how to “train” the personalized algorithms. — Key takeaways Our ‘snap judgment’ to click, like, and share media content is an ‘editorial’ decision. Platforms take our actions and preferences into the mathematical formulas known as algorithms that determine what content we encounter.

In today's media and information landscape, news and journalism need to be redefined for the students. — Introduction The following introduction activities are designed to bring out the following talking points: News is something new; something people want to know and share (public interest). Rumors and gossips can be true or not true, but news should be fact-based (verified or verifiable information).

Advertising material that resembles news borrows journalism’s credibility to promote a product, service, person, group, or even an idea. — Introduction [Transcript] In print newspapers and magazines, we have what we call advertorials. They look and read like news articles but in fact, they are sponsored content. In other words, someone paid to put the story into the newspaper, just like an advertisement, but it is presented in the form…

Some news stories are re-written press releases. Should we call those reports journalistic content? — Introduction [Video Transcript] The fundamental difference between news stories and other forms of storytelling is that news is factual — it should not be a result of fictional imagination, which is to say, all the information in a news story should come from somewhere outside of reporters’ brain.

Do your students really understand the impact of social media on the news they consume? How about its effect on overall human psychology, behavior, and interactions? — Introduction Establish how powerful the information we like, share, and produce on social media could be. You may like to show the following videos. Activity Social media pledge + self-reflective video monologue Learning outcome Students should be able to:

We are all about experimental pedagogy. — Why news education? A constant stream of fraudulent news stories in our daily media diet has given rise to troubling cultural trends and alarming political movements in recent years across the world. False claims, deceptive factoids, exaggerations, propaganda, hoaxes, rumors, questionable advertising, radical extremism, and other types of misleading content, often called misinformation…

Annie Lab does not take any political position or advocate for any course of action. — Annie Lab newsroom is a fact-checking project at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong (HKU Journalism) in collaboration with ANNIE (Asian Network of News & Information Educators), a not-for-profit educational organization registered in Hong Kong (CR number 2890935). Background In recent years, a constant stream…