Design, Science and Technology

Things that stood out for me:

• While the idea of an extension or plug-in that would flag fake news is appealing, Leetaru notes that fake news is "not black and white, it is a hundred shades of gray." The emotional language and the political disposition of the reader both play a part in the interpretation of fake news. (Although I'm still not clear how one can "interpret" facts differently, I get that two people could have different conclusions based on those facts.)
• Leetaru's idea of a 3D graph to analyze coverage of a topic is intriguing, and easily adaptable for a class project. Looking at an organization's coverage of a topic and determining, on average, how positive or negative it is, how often (and in what detail) the topic is covered, and finally how emotionally charged the coverage is could be a fascinating project in a middle or high school classroom.  I'd love to tie this to the project we did with 7th grade science classes on using social media to sway public opinion on environmental issues.(And this year, I'd love to explore developing bots for that!) This all would be a great tie-in for anyone using Paul Fleischman's Eyes Wide Open book and website.