Page 108 - Think 4. Teacher's Book B2

Unit 10
Unbelievable news Reading; Train to

7 Check/clarify: impartial (point
out that we would normally use UNBELIEVABLE NEWS UNIT 10
biased as the opposite rather
than partial); suit their own The rise in the last decade
agenda. or so of ‘fake news’ has also
led to increased research into
Ask students to read the what it is, how it spreads
introductory paragraph and and what its effects are.
answer these questions: What
is the doctor’s agenda/reason
any people believe that they can spot ‘fake news’
for his statement? What about Mand 1 . One of the most It’s clear that people who produce fake news know that
people love headlines and statements that shock, that
the politician’s? Give students worrying research discoveries is that this is not really true. disgust, that are scary. This is one reason why people are
time to look at the jobs and the Many studies have shown that we become more willing more likely to share them – 4 .
One researcher said that often people share something,
to believe something if we read or hear it enough times –
statements. and that includes things that we start off not believing. not because they necessarily thought it was true,
Check/clarify: abbreviations, Back in 2015, some researchers in the US gave students but because it would make friends and people in
their network react strongly.
statements which they were told were very likely to be
helplessness, spread, efficiently, false. When the statements were repeated several times, But surely, now, after basically two decades of the
effective. however, many students became uncertain. The lead internet and social media, people are much better at
researcher said that repeating something often enough

? Apparently not. Recently,
Encourage students to give made some students begin to think it was true. The 5 American high-school students were given a photo of
reasons for their choices. ‘good news’ from the research is that our knowledge is a damaged flower. The researchers told them it was a
still a strong factor in determining what we believe or
a 3 b 1 c 4 d 2 e 5 disbelieve. However, since there’s so much fake news flower from near a damaged nuclear power plant, but
did not tell them what the source of the photo was. Forty
going around these days, 2 .
percent of the students thought the photo was good
What adds to the feeling that we should be evidence about the state of the area around the nuclear
worried about fake news is further research plant, even though they had no idea where it came from.
Homework 3 . A ten-year study with So if you want to get real, not fake, news, check where
three million Twitter users followed the spread of over
Ask students to fact-check a well- 120,000 Twitter stories (a ‘story’ was a tweet that made it comes from. If it’s a shared piece, who’s sharing it with
you and why? If it’s from a website, have a look at the
known fake story and produce a statement about something outside the user’s own stories on the site – if they’re all shocking or scandalous
life – the statements were fact-checked by independent
evidence as to why it is fake, based organisations). A researcher said that they had found stories, be careful. And generally, never accept

something’s true 6
: see if you
on their checklist. some frightening things – especially the fact that truthful can find it in other – trustworthy – places, too.
tweets took six times longer to spread to other Twitter
users than fake ones.
Activity idea Extension
7 SPEAKING
SPEAKING Read these statements about social
In groups, ask students to brainstorm media. Match them with the person you think said
ideas and come up with a checklist Recognising the source of a statement them. Which do you think is the least trustworthy?
Why? Discuss in pairs.
for assessing the credibility of a news It’s good to get an idea of the background of the person who 1 a psychologist | 2 a politician | 3 a linguist
says or writes something. Are they an impartial expert or
article. Help by giving the following are they someone who wants to change your opinion to 4 an IT expert | 5 an advertising executive
ideas if they are struggling: suit their own agenda? For example, this statement about a We have noticed that people use fewer
a flu epidemic, ‘Patients can already spread the virus a
• Who reported the story? Do they day before they’ve fallen sick themselves,’ is more likely to abbreviations on Twitter than in texting, and tweets
seem to show more creative word use.
have come from a doctor than from a politician. On the
say they are a news company or other hand, ‘We have to stop people who are carrying the b Young people sometimes make things public that
journalist? virus from getting into the country’ is more likely to come they regret later. This can cause emotional problems
as well as a feeling of helplessness.
from a politician. By knowing who is providing a piece
• Does the webpage look normal? of information, you’re better able to decide how much c We’re trying to develop a system that will help
importance to give it and whether you can really trust what
people to upload multiple photos faster.
Does the web address look they say. d We use social media in order to spread our key
normal? messages more efficiently.
e Twitter – quite simply the most effective way to
• Is the writing formal, with correct reach our target consumers.
spellings and punctuation? 93
• Does the headline match what the
report is actually about? Activity idea Extension
• Are the facts supported by
evidence (such as quotes, images You may like to do more work on understanding and navigating the news.
or statistics)? Are there quotes The Guardian newspaper has a lot of useful resources and lesson plans in its
from real sources? Does the story NewsWise unit of work section, from spotting fake news and identifying fact
use a real photograph that shows and opinion to producing balanced reports and analysing bias.
the event, with a caption and a Project Look Sharp also has free media literacy lessons.
credit? There are several fact-checking websites that you might like to explore with
Choose an age-appropriate item your students such as Full Fact and Snopes (although make sure you have the
from one of the main news stories legitimate ones – there are now fake websites made to look like some of these).
of the day that everyone can
investigate. In pairs, ask students to
follow their checklist and investigate
the story. Compare findings and the
effectiveness of the checklist. more
Worksheets
Critical ing Project Fake or real?
Understanding and analysing ideas and Communication Spreading the news
arguments Get ing Is gossiping always bad?
Identifying and classifying information.
Unit 10 | Unbelievable news T93