Yes, you can make this stuff up! Make your own fake?

Technological tools are now available with which to receive, amass, and analyze data—“news”—from everywhere, and though these tools are typically wielded regularly with facile ease, there seems to be very little critical thought—and even less design thinking—applied to the information that those tools retrieve. A two-pronged effort can address the problem: On the one hand, the notion of critical/design thinking in the digital age must be raised; and on the other hand, the concept of reliable “truth” in a world of things “fake” must be engaged.

By using critical/design thinking methods, one can discern truths from un-truths. This session will address critical/design thinking’s role in the production of true and un-true “news” in three ways. First, the terms “reliable” and “unreliable” must be defined and exemplified, with respect to resources and data. Second, as resources are categorized as being reliable or unreliable, methods will be made plain that can be used across disciplines to discern reliable v. unreliable resources and data; it will be made clear that the latter are what are most frequently recruited to support un-truths. Finally, a self-test will be exploited to determine whether or not these skills have been properly honed. It will be clear that anyone can create a hoax or lie or untruth and attempt to bamboozle others with it.