Teachers typically focus on the first point, with an emphasis on legacy local news outlets (such as daily or weekly newspapers) and national news sources (such as weekly or monthly magazines and network news organizations). While students do need to learn how to evaluate news from these sources, the reality is that very few young people — even as they grow older — will use them the way their teachers and parents do.

Wardle discourages use of the phrase, largely because it is unhelpful: “The term ‘fake’ doesn’t begin to describe the complexity of the different types of misinformation (the inadvertent sharing of false information) and disinformation (the deliberate creation and sharing of information known to be false).

Journalism’s purpose, as the American Press Institute puts it, is “to provide citizens with the information they need to make the best possible decisions about their lives, their communities, their societies, and their governments.”

As news consumption has moved online, news organizations long recognized for their credibility and adherence to traditional standards of quality journal-ism have seen their profits disappear and their staffs decimated. As a result, many communities have lost common sources of information — and a common understanding of facts.Add social platforms with their algorithms and bots, and the public is now caught in a powerful and danger-ous whirlwind of self- and auto-selected news, rumors, gossip, state-sponsored propaganda and falsehoods