cover image Fake News, Propaganda, and Plain Old Lies: How to Find Trustworthy Information in the Digital Age

Fake News, Propaganda, and Plain Old Lies: How to Find Trustworthy Information in the Digital Age

Donald A. Barclay. Rowman & Littlefield, $30 (206p) ISBN 978-1-5381-0889-5

Barclay, a deputy University Librarian at University of California, Merced, offers a slim guide on how to separate factual information from fake news. He offers basic methods for evaluating information, such as determining whether the source for a news story is identified, and whether a so-called expert has the relevant credentials to provide an informed opinion. There’s also a quick introduction to logical fallacies, with short definitions of concepts like confirmation bias and moral equivalence. The best parts of the book deal directly with web-related topics. His chapter on fake news provides a clear and succinct overview of the not-so-new phenomenon and the factors that have contributed to its recent proliferation (e.g., information overload, search engine optimization, and political bots). And his evaluation (and endorsement) of Wikipedia as a viable of information source is spot-on. Toward the end, the book shifts to more advanced topics (statistical models, scholarly information) that will be less useful to lay readers. Though Barclay intends this work for “anyone who cares about the trustworthiness of the information they encounter,” its scope will make it most useful as part of college coursework . (June)