Fake News Ch4 Test Bank

Chapter 4: Fake News

Multiple Choice

(Correct answers are marked with an asterisk.)

1. The classic example of fake news leading to harassment and violence is…

a. The “Pizzagate” incident

b. Watergate

c. 9/11 terrorist attacks

d. Columbine

2. A lie intentionally fabricated to appear truthful and to gain an advantage (financial or otherwise) or to provoke a reaction is a…

a. Spoof

b. Hoax

c. Opinion

d. Satire

3. Illegitimate reasons for believing a claim are…

a. Close to the truth

b. Irrelevant to the truth of a claim

c. Rarely used

d. Rational

4. Reasonable skepticism entails that…

a. We doubt everything

b. We do not believe a claim unless we feel it’s true

c. We accept all claims until they are proved false

d. We do not believe a claim unless there are legitimate reasons for doing so

5. Fake news is…

a. News that government officials don’t like

b. A conspiracy

c. Deliberately false or misleading news stories that masquerade as truthful reporting

d. True news stories that seem fake

6. Legitimate reasons for believing a claim come from…

a. Reliable evidence, trustworthy sources, and critical reasoning

b. Social media

c. Sources that agree with a preferred partisan view

d. Sources that reinforce your personal beliefs

7. Someone who is prepared to believe almost anything given enough good reasons is...

a. A gullible person

b. Undisciplined

c. A good critical thinker

d. Very intelligent

8. When professional fact-checkers want to know whether a website is a reliable source of information, they...

a. Read vertically

b. Spend a long time on the website

c. Read laterally

d. Check the website’s design

9. Skilled researchers. . .

a. Do not use Google

b. Do not consult Google except as a last resort

c. Use Google sensibly

d. Do not use Google Scholar

10. A technique that helps you put a website’s information in proper perspective, uncover errors and bias, pinpoint consensus and disagreement among experts, and find out where the preponderance of evidence points is. . .

a. Looking for confirming evidence

b. Consulting a variety of sources

c. Denying confirming evidence

d. Reading vertically

11. A key question to ask in determining the credibility of a website is…

a. Are the claims plausible

b. Is the site well designed

c. Is the name of the site impressive

d. How many people have visited the site

12. By reading laterally, you can quickly…

a. Determine who is really behind the information you’re seeing

b. Find out if you agree with the site’s claims

c. Discover the designer of the site

d. Determine how much traffic the site gets

13. Critical thinking tells us that it is reasonable to…

a. Accept claims that are popular on social media

b. Accept claims that are supported independently by reliable authorities, evidence, or other claims that you know to be true

c. Accept claims that are asserted by the partisans we prefer

d. Never accept claims online

14. When you type questions or key words into Google, the first sources listed will almost certainly be…

a. The most accurate

b. Sources that have already been fact-checked

c. Sponsored sources—ads—which are likely to be biased or misleading

d. The most useful

15. To use Google to search inside the USA Today site for an article on coronavirus, type…

a. related:usatoday.com

b. coronavirus

c. usa today

d. site:usatoday.com coronavirus

16. The best cure for confirmation bias is…

a. To look only for disconfirming evidence

b. To look for disconfirming as well as confirming evidence

c. To select evidence according to your needs

d. To look for evidence that confirms your existing beliefs

17. A major obstacle to critical thinking about fake images is that…

a. People are good at recognizing when images have been changed or doctored

b. People are skeptical of all photos and videos

c. People tend not to believe photos and videos

d. People tend to believe photos and videos, too easily thinking that what they see is the whole, undistorted truth.

18. Reasonable skepticism in evaluating images involves…

a. Unlearning the habit of automatically accepting a photo or video at face value

b. Believing that an image is what it purports to be unless there are good reasons not to...

c. Believing that every image is fake

d. Avoiding images online

19. Counterfeit videos that have been manipulated with artificial intelligence (AI) to show people doing things they never actually did and saying things they never actually said are called…

a. Counterfeit fakes

b. Spurious images

c. Inauthentics

d. Deepfakes

20. The best that nonexperts can do to detect deepfakes is to…

a. Go with your gut

b. Read Vertically

c. Read laterally

d. Assume every image is a deepfake

Short Answer/Short Essay

1. What can a nonexpert do to try to detect deepfakes?

2. Do you agree that it’s unethical to share fake news? Why or why not?

3. What does reasonable skepticism entail?

4. What does reading laterally involve?

5. What are three questions to ask to help you determine the reliability of an online source?