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Disinformation in the Digital Age

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Stanford Research Highlights Lack of Skills

The Stanford History Education Group at Stanford University conducted a research study on media literacy with high school students.
The results—if they can be summarized in a word—are troubling:

52% of students believed a grainy video claiming to show ballot stuffing in the 2016 Democratic primaries constituted “strong evidence” of voter fraud in the U.S. In truth, the video was actually shot in Russia.

Two-thirds of students couldn’t tell the difference between news stories and ads.

96% percent of students did not even consider why ties between a climate change website and the fossil fuel industry might lessen that website’s credibility.1

Thanks to Ann Grandmaison and Susan Leonardi for permission to adapt and reuse some of the information on this guide. ​