Assignment Essay

4/27/2020 Fake News: How To Spot Misinformation: Life Kit : NPR

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/17/837202898/comic-fake-news-can-be-deadly-heres-how-to-spot-it 1/27

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Comic: Fake News Can Be Deadly. Here's How To Spot It April 20, 2020 · 12:03 AM ET

CONNIE HANZHANG JIN MILES PARKS

28-Minute Listen P L AY L I S T Download

Health officials right now aren't just having to battle an illness with no known cure or

vaccine — they're having to fight back against Internet trolls and conspiracy theorists.

The World Health Organization has labeled the current moment an "infodemic."

Listen To Life Kit

This story comes from Life Kit, NPR's podcast with tools to help you get it together. To listen to this episode, play the audio at the top of the page or find it here. For more Life Kit, sign up for our weekly newsletter.

"While the virus spreads, misinformation makes the job of our heroic health workers

even harder. It diverges attention of our decision-makers and it causes confusion and

spreads fear to the general public," says the WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros

Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

You've probably come across a piece of bad information online, and you might not

even know it. The virus was not created in a lab as a bioweapon, for instance, and

inhaling hot air from a hair dryer is not a cure.

Experts say this outbreak may be the biggest source of Internet misinformation ...

ever.

KRVS PRI's The World

4/27/2020 Fake News: How To Spot Misinformation: Life Kit : NPR

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/17/837202898/comic-fake-news-can-be-deadly-heres-how-to-spot-it 2/27

Life Kit wants to help. Here's a comic to help you sharpen your misinformation Spidey

senses:

Connie Hanzhang Jin/NPR

4/27/2020 Fake News: How To Spot Misinformation: Life Kit : NPR

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/17/837202898/comic-fake-news-can-be-deadly-heres-how-to-spot-it 3/27

Connie Hanzhang Jin/NPR

4/27/2020 Fake News: How To Spot Misinformation: Life Kit : NPR

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/17/837202898/comic-fake-news-can-be-deadly-heres-how-to-spot-it 4/27

Connie Hanzhang Jin/NPR

4/27/2020 Fake News: How To Spot Misinformation: Life Kit : NPR

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/17/837202898/comic-fake-news-can-be-deadly-heres-how-to-spot-it 5/27

Connie Hanzhang Jin/NPR

4/27/2020 Fake News: How To Spot Misinformation: Life Kit : NPR

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/17/837202898/comic-fake-news-can-be-deadly-heres-how-to-spot-it 6/27

Connie Hanzhang Jin/NPR

4/27/2020 Fake News: How To Spot Misinformation: Life Kit : NPR

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/17/837202898/comic-fake-news-can-be-deadly-heres-how-to-spot-it 7/27

"So like a virus, we need to do our part in flattening the curve of misinformation right now!" says Glasses Cat. Below is an example of how misinformation could spread to cause real world consequences. A tweet saying "if you can hold your breath without coughing, you're not infected" gets passed to several cats, one who decides to go outside and another who decides not to seek medical attention. Connie Hanzhang Jin/NPR

4/27/2020 Fake News: How To Spot Misinformation: Life Kit : NPR

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/17/837202898/comic-fake-news-can-be-deadly-heres-how-to-spot-it 8/27

Connie Hanzhang Jin/NPR

4/27/2020 Fake News: How To Spot Misinformation: Life Kit : NPR

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/17/837202898/comic-fake-news-can-be-deadly-heres-how-to-spot-it 9/27

Connie Hanzhang Jin/NPR

4/27/2020 Fake News: How To Spot Misinformation: Life Kit : NPR

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/17/837202898/comic-fake-news-can-be-deadly-heres-how-to-spot-it 10/27

Connie Hanzhang Jin/NPR

4/27/2020 Fake News: How To Spot Misinformation: Life Kit : NPR

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/17/837202898/comic-fake-news-can-be-deadly-heres-how-to-spot-it 11/27

Connie Hanzhang Jin/NPR

4/27/2020 Fake News: How To Spot Misinformation: Life Kit : NPR

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/17/837202898/comic-fake-news-can-be-deadly-heres-how-to-spot-it 12/27

Connie Hanzhang Jin/NPR

The above story is given to you for the comic by Connie Hanzhang Jin included on the NPR web page at <https://www.npr.org/2020/04/17/837202898/comic-fake-news-can-be-deadly-heres-how- to-spot-it>; the page also includes an audio file for the podcast Life Kit (hosted by Miles Parks) from 20 April 2020 episode. The audio contains content not represented in the print page and will be both attached to this document as a file and embedded below this file on your course Moodle page.