Fake news isn’t new, but new digital tools make it easier to spread quickly. To spot a fake, you need to be able to dissect breaking news, evaluate partisan content, and use critical thinking skills. Given the sheer volume of news available, how can the average person separate fact from fiction?

Join the Drexel Libraries for a film screening of Fake: Searching for Truth in the Age of Misinformation, a PBS documentary that helps viewers learn to discern fact from fiction in news reports, identify fake news, and evaluate the biases of real news using common sense, critical thinking skills, and an understanding of universal standards of journalism.

Following the screening, Drexel Professor Mary Jean Tecce DeCarlo, EdD, will lead a discussion about the ”fake news” phenomenon and the role of information literacy in the fight against it.

This event is part of our exciting lineup of truth* @ Drexel exhibit programming. Visit our website for additional information about the exhibit and other related events and activities.

About the Speaker:

Mary Jean Tecce DeCarlo, EdD is a Clinical Professor of Literacy Studies at Drexel University’s School of Education. She earned her doctorate in Reading, Writing and Literacy from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. DeCarlo has been a classroom teacher, a curriculum leader, and a college professor.  At Drexel she focuses her teaching and research on reading comprehension, teacher education, challenges regarding reading and writing instruction for delayed readers and writers, and the development of information and digital literacy skills.

Dr. DeCarlo created collaborative research projects with elementary, middle school, and high school classroom teachers and an interdisciplinary group of researchers around the I-LEARN model created by Dr. Delia Neuman. The team published Learning in Information-Rich Environments: I-LEARN and the Construction of Knowledge from Information (2^nd Edition) with Springer in 2019.  She has also published her information literacy research in peer-reviewed journals, including Early Childhood Education Journal, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, School Libraries Worldwide, The Social Studies, and Urban Education.