Maoret gives an example to illustrate how the news media helped “broadcast” information from the east coast to the west coast. Explain in your own words how the media used to work, in theory. How did social media complicate that relationship?

The link to TED Talk

Watch this TED Talk and answer the following questions.

1. What does “post-truth” mean, according to the speaker? Explain in your own words. Then Google the phrase. Summarize what the phrase means and why it might impact our society.

2. Explain, in your own words, the study that the speaker discusses regarding people’s willingness to conform, despite objective truth. What did the study find? What does this suggest about humans’ ability to identify the truth, when they may be surrounded by people who do not recognize that truth?

3. Maoret gives an example to illustrate how the news media helped “broadcast” information from the east coast to the west coast. Explain in your own words how the media used to work, in theory. How did social media complicate that relationship?

4. According to Maoret, what is the solution to isolating the truth from the “noise”? And why is this hard?
5. After discussing some “red flags” that might indicate an article is not factually speaker, Maoret discusses the things we can do to figure out where the truth lies. What are these? (Hint: there are 3 things we can do.)

Reflect:

6. Maoret talks at length about social media’s impact on the truth and the way we are swayed by those around us. Where do you most often learn about what is going on in the world? From your parents? Friends? Social media posts? TV news? Newspapers? How often do you verify (fact check) that the things you are reading are accurate? How often do you check if other sources confirm/contradict sources you are interested in? How persuasive do you find your friends and family to be?

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