Students taught to recognize fake news

By Debbie L. Hochberg
Correspondent
SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Is it fake news? Is it real news? How does one tell the difference? Public relations students at Seton Hall University in South Orange are learning just that — and paying it forward by educating others on this timely topic.

Each year, The Public Relations Student Society of America sponsors “The Bateman Case Study Competition” to give students at universities across the country the chance to apply what they have learned in the classroom and through internships, to create a full public relations campaign.
This year the PRSSA chose The News Literacy Project as the client for the campaign. According to its website, NLP is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization which “works with educators and journalists to give students the skills they need to discern fact from fiction and to know what to trust.”

Brooke Prunier, Jake Ciccarelli, Megan Cunningham and Ava Ekberg, all SHU seniors, were chosen to be on SHU’s Bateman team, which has already begun to put together a public relations campaign for the NLP.

Prunier, a public relations major who is also the President of the SHU chapter of the PRSSA, said she realizes how crucial it is to be able to distinguish between what is real and what is not. “It’s so important for people to be able to accurately interpret the news — especially with so much fake news going around,” she said.

Throughout February, Prunier and the other SHU Bateman team members have been finding creative ways to spread the real news about fake news, including setting up a table at the SHU men’s basketball game at the Prudential Center in Newark to engage SHU students and fans in the conversation. The SHU Bateman team members gave out information and resources to ensure as many people as possible are looking at credible and accurate news, said Prunier.

The SHU Bateman team also hosted a panel discussion on the importance of news literacy for minorities, which was open to the community. Prunier said she learned through the NLP that minorities between the ages of 18 and 34 are targeted in the media with a large amount of fake news. She said that is why it is important to target that same demographic with information about how to tell the difference between what is real and what is fake.

This week, The SHU Bateman team is partnering with the Unified Vailsburg Services Organization, a non-profit organization in Newark, which aims, according to its website, “to create a stable and compassionate community in the Vailsburg neighborhood of the city of Newark.”

The SHU Bateman team is collaborating with the UVSO on a book drive to “promote the practice of consuming and interpreting information,” Prunier said. She explained that the team members are creating bookmarks, which will have information about the NLP and tips to practice reading and interpreting. Those bookmarks will be inserted into each book.

Ellisa Clark-Rawls, UVSO’s acting director of education, said in a press release, “I am overwhelmed with gratitude and very excited to know our students will have the opportunity to grow their own libraries.”
Prunier said the NLP website is a great place to begin to learn to discern what is real and what is fake, regarding the news. “They have great free tools like ‘Rumorguard’ and ‘Checkology’ so people are able to practice interpreting news and seeing if it is accurate or not,” she said.

The SHU Bateman team also created its own Instagram account, @piratepressclub, which includes information about events, the importance of news literacy and how the public can become more news literate, Prunier said. It will also include short reels with fellow students talking about what they know about the topic.

“I am so glad to be able to have this opportunity to learn more about what it takes to make a public relations campaign, especially for such an important organization,” Prunier said. “My teammates and I have really enjoyed sharing our message about news literacy and working with the UVSO, so that people of all ages in the community can practice identifying credible information.”

Any and all book donations are greatly appreciated and can be brought to the University Center of Seton Hall University, 4OO South Orange Ave., and to the Unified Vailsburg Services Organization, 1044 South Orange Ave., Newark.

For additional information about the News Literacy Project, visit newslit.org.