There was once a time when sifting through the news of the day was relatively easy. Presenting “just the facts” was considered standard procedure for reputable news organizations, and distinguishing fact from fiction was not a major challenge for most people.

How things have changed. With our daily flood of information and rapidly changing sources of information, it’s hard to know what to believe anymore. In response to this information crisis, journalists and media educators Starshine Roshell, Lisa Osborn and Amy Marie Orozco have joined forces to spread a little truth about how to distinguish fact from fiction in this age of rampant misinformation.

I met her recently ahead of her presentation. Moment of truth: distinguishing fact from fiction in the age of disinformationwhich will take place on September 5th at the TV Santa Barbara Media Center in downtown.

While this collaboration is new and made possible by a grant from the Association for Women in Communications (AWC) Advancement Fund and funding from the Santa Barbara Foundation, the passion for telling the truth runs deep among these journalists.

Roshell began giving talks on misinformation right after the attack on the United States Capitol by a mob of supporters of then-President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021. “I was watching TV and it just blew my mind that there were so many people who couldn’t tell fact from fiction. They didn’t understand the lies that were being told to them by the president and certain news organizations that shall remain unnamed here, weren’t able to spot them for themselves, do their own research, question them for themselves,” Roshell said. “And I thought, ‘Oh my God, I have to do something about this. What can I do?’ So I started looking around for organizations that were doing this kind of work and volunteered with the News Literacy Project (newslit.org). I gave several presentations there and then a few more on my own for local organizations.”

One of those organizations was KCSB, the radio station at UC Santa Barbara, where Osborn works as news and public relations director and conducts workshops for students and the public on various aspects of journalism and news writing. Another organization Roshell pitched to was AWC, which all three are involved with. When she learned that AWC’s National Advancement Fund was awarding grants for communications projects, Osborn sprang into action, first approaching Orozco to propose the idea of ​​a media literacy program.

“For me, the issue is very important. I think we are in dire straits in this country. I said, ‘Let’s do it.’ We took a walk in Carpinteria and the ideas just bubbled up,” said Orozco, a longtime Carpinteria resident and former editor in chief of the city Coastal View News. They ended their walk at the Island Brewing Company, where they met Jena Jenkins, who runs the city’s AgeWell program. She was so enthusiastic that she immediately agreed to consider the presentation.

“I have felt helpless for so long and this is definitely a way to improve the situation,” Orozco said.

People of all ages and levels of tech experience can benefit from the information they share. This ever-evolving presentation offers practical tips and simple advice to help people become savvy and responsible media consumers. Specific skills include learning to spot manipulated images, verifying sources, not falling for “ragebait” – content that entices you to share without checking – and avoiding spreading misinformation to other people.

One of the tools they’ll be reviewing is the SIFT tool, Osborn explained. “It’s the ‘stop, investigate the source, find better reporting, and then trace it back to the original source.’ And with this tool alone, we’re really getting into that component because it’s a key tool to be able to analyze everything you read to process it more critically.”

She continued: “We’re going to look at AI and some deep fakes related to the election. And we’re going to talk about how manipulated images are being used to influence the upcoming election. We’ve already seen cases of this.”

“We’re also going into the background,” Orozco said. “How did we get here? In terms of fake news and things like that.”

“For a lot of people, this feels like a new world. But one interesting aspect that I’ve really been thinking about is the fact that lying is nothing new, is it? People have been lying for thousands of years, certainly centuries. People lie with the spoken word and probably with the written word as well,” Roshell said.

“And we’ve all learned to filter what we know and hear and read through our common sense. But then, and even more recently, images have been manipulated, and we’re all very aware of that. Nobody sees a model on the cover of a magazine and thinks, ‘Wow, her skin is just perfect.’ We all have a filter that makes us realize that images can be manipulated. So I think when people start to feel overwhelmed by deep fake videos and things that AI can do, it can be a little scary, right? We’re in this kind of new world. But one of the things we teach in this presentation is that it’s really about using the exact same skills that we’ve always used. It’s about your common sense, your critical thinking… We have this amazing, huge tool of the internet, which can feel kind of scary and ominous when you start to think that this is all the internet’s fault. But in reality, it’s also our most important tool in researching some of this information. And there are so many great fact-checking websites out there now, and we’ll feature many of them at the end.”

She continued: “Another part of this presentation is to help people understand the difference between high-quality, standards-based journalism and social media platforms, whose goal is not to inform, right? It’s all about engaging – and how we all contribute to that.”

Distinguishing fact from fiction also has an important mental health component, especially for younger people, Osborn said. “So the more we can train others to feel more confident about what they see and hear, the more it can support their well-being and mental health. In my work with college students and younger adults, they are more skeptical of everything because they don’t know what to believe because they grew up with the internet. So these are solid tools they can use.”

The TVSB Moment of truth The presentation is a fundraiser for the nonprofit organization, which provides residents with the knowledge, resources and tools to create their own original programs. Tickets for the event – which takes place at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 5 at 1219 State Street – are $20 and are available at bit.ly/4dUHfHJ. Moment of Truth team members emphasized that they are also available to give free presentations to organizations. Email [email protected] for more information.