From Deadlines
to Headlines
Skepticism-as-a-Service
Skepticism-as-a-Service
Early in the Covid pandemic, I built “Decoding the News” a Zoom and live, in-person workshop focused on news literacy and fact-checking. The goal is to help people make informed choices and identify the political spin, misinformation and shifting news media landscape. It’s about an hour of advice, strategy and tactics for getting useful details quickly and sort through the opinions, speculation, airtime-filling bloviators and politically-slanted interviewing.
There is rarely one cause for anything. So, I encourage looking at multiple reasons (economic, political, demographic, timing, social) why things happen and decisions get made. It’s important to gather as many viewpoints as time allows and then decide which are most relevant. Sometimes, people need to reset their “media diet” for news and get information delivered from another vantage point to see a more complete picture. The choices have never been wider, with all sorts of lenses used to interpret the day’s events.
A few “Decoding the News” hosts, 2020-21
- American Family Insurance DreamBank – Madison, WI
- Crane Public Library – Quincy, MA
- Morrill Memorial Library – Norwood, MA