Media students hold fake news quiz

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Students on the BA in Journalism & Media course held a specially designed quiz with a randomly selected group of MIUC undergraduates and staff to test their ability to spot real from fake news.

The two third-year students – Hiba Haraq and Sarah Berzel – designed the fun quiz as part of an assignment for their Investigative Journalism module. The test consisted of 12 questions ranging from headlines on politics, science and general knowledge topics and were all selected from published headlines on online news sites.

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A group of seven randomly selected MIUC volunteers from the student body, administrative and academic staff undertook the novel quiz in which they had to physically move from the fake to the real side of the quizmasters in reaction to the headlines.

Hiba and Sarah introduced the quiz methodology with a few tips for the non-media participants about how to deal with suspect headlines (and stories) on dubious online sites posing as serious news.

Questions ranging from “Fat-free food is killing you slowly” to “50 new spider species discovered” ensured lively debates as participants not only changed and swopped sides in relation to their initial reactions to the questions but also to the fast-moving debates and discussions among the group about the topical headlines!

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All MIUCers tested really well on their ability to distinguish between fake and real headlines with four volunteers ending the 12-question run with joint top marks. A tiebreaker set of three questions had been prepared by the quizmasters for this eventuality. It concerned a question about the White House and a man that generates many real and fake headlines – the USA president Donald Trump.

However as the 13th question was solely answered correctly by media professor Juho Ahava he went on to seal the top spot of a modest prize and an enthusiastic round of applause from all concerned.

By Mary O’Carroll

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