‘NewsFeed Defenders’ teaches students how to spot misinformation

The Annenberg Public Policy Center, home of FactCheck.org and Annenberg Classroom, and iCivics, the education nonprofit founded by Sandra Day O’Connor, have released NewsFeed Defenders, a new online game designed to teach media literacy and help students and adults better understand what news is and how to avoid being deceived by misinformation.

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Image courtesy of the Annenberg Public Policy Center.

Designed to help make sense of today’s chaotic media environment, NewsFeed Defenders is an online simulation that teaches players to detect and disregard disinformation and misinformation on the web—and resist clickbait, viral rumors, and biased sources.

The game, created for secondary school students through adults, puts players in charge of the news aggregation site Newsably. Their mission: to protect the integrity of the site while also attracting new readers. 

The game gives players a look behind the headlines by teaching them how to spot so-called fake news, or viral deception; how to know when advertising is posing as news; how to identify bias in stories based on word choices and how a story is framed; how to apply journalistic standards, verifying information and images; and how to become a more astute reader of online news.

Read more at the Annenberg Public Policy Center.