YOUTH LED: Fake News, Lies, and Propaganda: Identifying Fallacies and Disinformation in a chaotic world

False news and lies have always been part of media history. And today, it is more prominent than ever. From satirical stories to false contextualization and from manipulated headlines to fabricated content, fake news is everywhere. Lies travel with frightening speed on the internet, random claims spark angry backlashes, and disinformation is commonplace. In such a chaotic world, it is important to have media literacy – identifying fake news and fallacies in journalism becomes an essential skill to survive. This workshop will throw light on the outreach of mass media, the role it plays in shaping public opinion, the impacts fake news can have, the psychological and practical reasons it spreads quickly, what we can do to combat its spread, and more. There will be several audience engagement activities, including a word cloud activity, some GK-based questions, reflection and opinion-based discussion, analysis of fake news articles, audience polls, etc. This session will hopefully make the audience more aware and careful in the current information environment.