Featured Books
Weaponized Lies by
Previously Published as A Field Guide to Lies We're surrounded by fringe theories, fake news, and pseudo-facts. These lies are getting repeated. New York Times bestselling author Daniel Levitin shows how to disarm these socially devastating inventions and get the American mind back on track. Here are the fundamental lessons in critical thinking that we need to know and share now. Investigating numerical misinformation, Daniel Levitin shows how mishandled statistics and graphs can give a grossly distorted perspective and lead us to terrible decisions. Wordy arguments on the other hand can easily be persuasive as they drift away from the facts in an appealing yet misguided way. The steps we can take to better evaluate news, advertisements, and reports are clearly detailed. Ultimately, Levitin turns to what underlies our ability to determine if something is true or false: the scientific method. He grapples with the limits of what we can and cannot know. Case studies are offered to demonstrate the applications of logical thinking to quite varied settings, spanning courtroom testimony, medical decision making, magic, modern physics, and conspiracy theories. This urgently needed book enables us to avoid the extremes of passive gullibility and cynical rejection. As Levitin attests: Truth matters. A post-truth era is an era of willful irrationality, reversing all the great advances humankind has made. Euphemisms like "fringe theories," "extreme views," "alt truth," and even "fake news" can literally be dangerous. Let's call lies what they are and catch those making them in the act.
Call Number: BC177 .L486 2017
Critical Thinking: Theories, Methods, and Challenges by
Critical thinking, being a general competency, is usable in different professions and areas of human life. In most professions, the crucial ability is to be capable of problem-solving and decision-making. If one needs to make a decision, it is the critical thinking aspect that is most helpful in making the right decision. Nowadays, much more important than to know how to find information is the ability to meaningfully process it. Critical thinking includes higher-order cognitive operations, such as interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation and self-regulation. The authors of this book examine the theories, methods and challenges of critical thinking and its applications in the real world.
Call Number: LB1590.3 .C76 2016Publication Date: 2016
The Stewart/Colbert Effect by
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report have attracted much interest in recent years from popular audiences as well as scholars in various disciplines. Both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have been named on Time magazine's list of the most influential people in the world. The ten essays in this interdisciplinary collection explore the issues engendered by the popularity of entertainment news, including the role of satire in politics, the declining level of trust in traditional sources of media, the shows' cathartic or informational function, and the ways in which these shows influence public opinion. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.
Call Number: PN1992.77 .D28 S74 2011Publication Date: 2011
Web of Deception by
As the Internet has become flooded with untrustworthy information, some of which is intentionally misleading or erroneous, this book teaches web surfers how inaccurate data can affect their health, privacy, investments, business decisions, online purchases, and legal affairs. Bringing together the world’s leading information-age observers, analysts, writers, and practitioners, this analysis reveals the Web as fertile ground for deception and misinformation. These experts provide hard-won advice on how to recognize misinformation in its myriad forms and disguises. Included are an array of tips on how to evaluate web sites for quality and bias, checklists for navigating the Internet more effectively, and advice for those who have been duped.
Call Number: ZA4201 .W43 2002Publication Date: 2002
Videos from AVON
- A Sudent's Guide to Critical Thinking When students enter college, they will begin their journey on the road to their future careers. At the core to their preparation and eventual success in these careers will be the ability to think critically, reason skillfully, and - in this era of fake news - distinguish between fact and fiction.
- Media Literacy: The Experts What are the benefits, opportunities and pitfalls of the digital explosion for education, and how does 'media literacy' fit in?
- Media Literacy: The Teenagers Students from Parkside Community College share their knowledge, competencies, interests and experience of the internet, social networking, gaming, virtual worlds, music, films, TV and culture.
Resources on the Web
- Daniel Levitin's website Biographical and other info about the author, as well as links to essays and video
- The News Literacy Project The News Literacy Project (NLP) is a nonpartisan national education nonprofit that works with educators and journalists to teach middle school and high school students how to sort fact from fiction in the digital age. NLP provides these students with the essential skills they need to become smart, active consumers of news and information and engaged, informed citizens.
- NPR / All Tech Considered: Fake or Real? How to Self-Check the News and Get the Facts Stopping the proliferation of fake news isn't just the responsibility of the platforms used to spread it. Those who consume news also need to find ways of determining if what they're reading is true.
- UC Berkeley Interview with Daniel Levitin Interview touches on issues such as "fake news," the "post-truth era," and "the new normal".
- JSTOR Daily: Four Hard Truths About Fake News Given the fake news, YouTube newsflashes, and daily early-morning Twitter bulletins that have become our new diplomatic reality, I propose the following four truths about fake news to be self-evident. They describe what the internet has become, what it has produced, and what we might do about it.
- Misleading Statistics Examples – Discover The Potential for Misuse of Statistics & Data in the Digital Age Given the importance of data in today’s rapidly evolving digital world, it is important to be familiar with the basics of statistical misuse and oversight. As an exercise in due diligence, we will review some of the most common forms of statistical data misuse, and various alarming (and sadly, common) misleading statistics examples from public life.
- Rhetological Fallacies An interactive list of logical fallacies & rhetorical devices with everyday examples.
Featured eResource
Daniel Levitin | Talks at Google: "Weaponized Lies: How to Think Critically in the Post-Truth Era"
Nate Silver TED Talk: Does Racism Affect How You Vote?
How To Spot Fake News
image from IFLA.org
Check Your Facts!
Use these independent fact-checking sites to help you spot misinformation and opinion in the news and on the web!
- Snopes The Snopes.com web site was founded in 1994 and has since grown into the oldest and largest fact-checking site on the Internet.
- Politifact PolitiFact is a fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others who speak up in American politics.
- FactCheck.org FactCheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. It is a nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics.
- Allsides AllSides is a news service which exposes bias and provides multiple angles on the same story so you can quickly get the full picture, not just one slant.
How Statistics Can Be Misleading
Podcasts
- The Art of Charm, Ep. 641 Host Jordan Harbinger talks with Daniel Levitin about his book Weaponized Lies.
- Marketplace: How to be a more critical thinker about news Segment from the American Public Media radio program.
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