Lesson 4 Be Smart in the Digital World
Fake or Fact, That Is the Question
British writer Oobah Butler wanted to experiment with how easily one can ____ public opinion online.
He created a fake restaurant called ____ Shed at Dulwich.
Butler set up an ____ for his “restaurant” on a popular online review site.
____ did not provide an exact address and wrote it was reservations only.
He did this to make people think The Shed was a special ____
He faked photos of The Shed’s food with shaving cream, whitening tablets, and ____ his own foot.
He then asked his ____ to write favorable fake reviews on the review site.
Things quickly got, ____ Butler’s words, “a little out of hand.”
From the lowest of ____ charts of the review site, The Shed continuously climbed the London rankings.
He ____ getting e-mails and phone calls requesting reservations.
Interest further increased when ____ told callers The Shed was “fully booked for the next six weeks.”
Even funnier, ____ suppliers started guessing The Shed’s address and sent him free samples, and many job applications came in.
These ____ happened without Butler serving a single meal.
The Shed eventually became London’s number-one restaurant on one of the most trusted ____ review sites.
According to Butler, The ____ held that ranking for two weeks.
Butler’s story shows
Butler’s story shows that much of what we see on the Internet cannot be ____
This emphasizes the importance ____ digital literacy.
Digital literacy ____ about more than just using computers.
It is the ability to use digital technology to find, evaluate, create, and ____ information.
To become digitally literate, we need to develop an attitude ____ knowledge that enable us to detect false information online.
False information is any information that ____ or deceives people.
It ____ be about anything such as health, the environment, and economics across many platforms.
It can ____ influential, as The Shed incident shows.
If people had been digitally literate, they would not have been fooled by The Shed ____ so easily.
Digitally literate people would have carefully considered information about The Shed without being distracted by ____ people’s reactions.
They would have been suspicious that the restaurant did not have an ____
They would have wondered why reviews on the restaurant did not appear in ____ more credible media.
If they had done these things, they would likely have suspected that something was ____ right.
Fortunately, The Shed incident was an experiment that caused ____ damage.
____ false information can cause emotional or financial harm to people.
For example, false information about a certain gender or belief group can stir up ____ against that group.
It can cause fights between those who support the group and those who ____ not.
In addition, misleading online reviews about questionable products ____ trick people into wasting money.
To avoid being deceived
To avoid being deceived by false information, we need to develop a habit of critically evaluating ____ we see online.
If you see a story that looks too good or too bad to be true, ____ the source first.
Look ____ the website the story comes from.
Does it look real? Are there spelling errors? Does it have ____ stories or just the one you read?
Check that the story contains references ____ links to other information.
Click on those links ____ see if the other information looks reliable.
Websites with false information often do not have many ____ stories about other topics.
They also often have lots of advertisements that pop up when you visit ____ sites.
You should then check the ____ of the content creator.
____ a story has no writer’s name, this could be a sign that its content is questionable.
If there is a name, find out what and where ____ person has reported before.
If the person has not written anything else or writes for a website ____ looks unreliable, think twice before believing the content.
Finally, check who else is reporting the ____
If no other media are reporting the same story, the story may ____ be true.
Pick a few keywords ____ the story and put them in a search site to see if other media are supporting the story.
Sorting through ____ vast amount of information created and shared online is challenging.
However, it is important that we know what false information ____ and how it spreads.
The better we recognize false information, the better we will be at avoiding ____ and helping others do the same.