Shaping Narratives

Learning goals

• To be aware of the basics of fact-checking.
• To express facts while avoiding fallacies.
• To reflect on how technology affects people’s lives and well-being.

Duration

•  70-90 minutes (depending on the size of the group)

Outline

Part 1: Statements & Spectogram / 10 minutes

• There are lots of statements from news headlines about young people and technology. Let’s have a look at some of these statements and see if they reflect reality and are based on verifiable facts.

  • Teenagers are addicted to technology.
  • Teenagers are vulnerable to “fake news”.
  • Technology harms teenagers' mental health.
  • Attention spans of teenagers are declining due to technology.

• Read each statement above and ask participants to position themselves based on what extent they think the statement is accurate or inaccurate (by adding a dot anywhere along the line from ‘completely invented’ to ‘fact-based’ statement).

• Ask a few participants to describe why they chose their positions.

 Part 2: Fact-checking / 15-25 minutes

• Now you will work in groups to fact-check one of those statements.

  • In preparation for the activity, go through with participants the basic steps of fact-checking (You can find a supporting article here: https://datadetoxkit.org/en/misinformation/fakenews)

    • What website is this from?
    • Who wrote it (and when)?
    • What does the article say (beyond the headline)?
    • Which sources are they referring to?

  • Each group chooses one of the statements mentioned before and spends 20 minutes checking its veracity by researching online and making note of the sources.

Part 3: Presentation / 15-25 minutes

• Each group presents what they have found so far. The facilitator should ask each group questions to have them further think on their fact-checking process (take notes on a board of the responses):

  • What was the most challenging part of the exercise?
  • Did you find anything that surprised you or made you think that your statement is misleading?
  • Which source are you relying on for information and how can you be sure the source is credible? 

Part 4: Shaping Narratives / 15-20 minutes

• After each group has shared their conclusions, ask them to go back to their groups and revise their original statements based on their findings in order to create a more accurate headline.
• Ask each group to present their new headline and why they believe it is more accurate.

Part 5: Wrap Up / 5-10 minutes

• Ask participants to share what are the main learnings from the activity (take notes). Key learnings to reinforce in case they don’t come up:

  • The importance of applying basic fact-checking steps while watching, reading, listening or discussing any type of content.
  • We should be careful about what we share and how to ensure we are not spreading false or misleading information.
  • It is important to distinguish personal opinions and experiences from facts.
  • Technology has an impact on everyone’s lives not only young people.

Variations

• Part 1: If offline, beside filling out the statements card, participants can stand along a line where one end expresses ‘completely invented’ and the other end ‘fact-based statement’.

• Part 1: Ask participants to share more statements that people (e.g. teachers, parents, the media) say about teenagers and technology.

  • Some examples could be: "Gen Z are less politically active than previous generations”. “Violent video games make young people more violent”, “Girls face more social pressure than boys online.”
  • You can use some of these statements in part 2 as statements for fact-checking.

• Part 2: As an intermediate step before the groups share the results of their research you can ask the groups to rotate and fact-check another’s group research. If you plan for this, be sure that each group is documenting their findings clearly.

Materials

• Activity cards
• Paper sheets
• Pens or markers
• Online access and at least one device per group (smartphone or computer) for Part 2

Facilitator tips

• This activity is designed to be done in groups, however the group work section (Part 2) can also be done individually.
• The duration of each part is an estimation. Be aware that the size of group, how active or passive participants are in the discussions or the option to include the proposed  variations can impact the duration of each activity.
• For tips and training on how to conduct research, check out Module 2 of the Digital Enquirer Kit or the the article Turn on the Light of the Data Detox Kit.
• If the data cannot be found to backup the statements, open a discussion about why that was the case: Was more time needed to do the research? Did the participants feel confused about how to conduct research? Were more specific resources or experts needed to be consulted? Have these topics not been funded for research? Check out the art piece “The Library of Missing Data Sets 2.0” by Mimi Onuoha (featured in The Glass Room) in order to explore what other data may not be findable.

Preview the activity card

Download the activity cards and outline

Are you an educator? Do you want to use these activities as part of a lesson or a workshop? See our Further Learning materials page to find guides and mini workshops based around the What the Future Wants activities.