But the apparent reconciliation efforts are opposed by many in the south with several petitions filed against it but those with the headlines the news continues here. After the stream station thats watching. Your in power americas controversy president continues to polarize opinion. In a week of special reports aljazeera examined at home and around. Donald trumps first year on aljazeera. I have three ok youre in the stream where live on aljazeera and you tube fake news if tweets watch t. V. Or even just talk politics with your friends is a phrase that you cant escape but what does it really mean to date stream explain. Although its first use is can be traced back more than a hundred years the current popularity of the phrase fake news is down to one man u. S. President donald trump he first started using it as a weapon against his critics walk and painting and since his election has used the numerous times trump has now said that he plans on wednesday to hand up awards for fake news the announcement prompted ridicule from many with several comedians actively campaigning to be nominated a politico tally at the end of last year found that the phrase has become a favorite of all for terry and governments with leaders or state media in at least fifteen countries using it to attack journalists so what does fake news really mean and is it even a useful description joining to help us answer these questions Claire WardleResearch Fellow at the Shorenstein Center at the Harvard Kennedy school and director of first draft news who levinson is professor of media studies at Fordham University author of fake news a real context michelle to live in is executive director of the National Association for Media Literacy education i guess before we jump into the conversation i want to show you a clip this is earlier wednesday u. S. Republican senator jeff flake making news about fake news have a look now were told via twitter today the president intends to announce his choice for the quote most corrupt and Dishonest Media words. It beggars belief that an american president would engage in such a spectacle but here we are. Poor here we are have we reached peak fake news is this the moment where weve just maxed out on the top. Nah dont think so and i think we still have a ways to go and i just want to say not only comedians but i have now sent several tweets to trump urging them to give my book fake news and real contact ive seen and what the fake news now so so far no response but the fact is fake news is a burgeoning issue because it is trumped wont let it go and what started out as people being concerned about real fake news when its almost an oxymoron but news that was fake trump cleverly twisted into an attack on any news that he finds unwelcome or in the least bit critical and so day doesnt go by because he does so many things worthy of criticism that someone on some media platform isnt being critical of him and his now standard routine is to denounce it as fake news and thats very damaging to our political system so to flake is completely right we need to speak out about this. I agree i think that you know the fake news conversation is very limiting and also quite dangerous and although it has definitely put a spotlight on some important issues in our culture certainly around information flow its really limiting in the sense that weve you know its been coopted the term itself has been coopted as as paul said to really just focus on you know what we dont want to believe and that is not what fake news is and never was and what is in the south can be really each you teach Media Literacy what do you tell your one zero one fake news class when you tell people it is all fake news is deliberate deliberate false information that deliberately is needed to manipulate made its deliberately false it is not stuff that we dont agree with its not inaccuracy its not. Things that we just dont have all the information for yet but so far in trying to presidency we spend a lot of time talking about what the news isnt because hes really focused on it be all that said you know shines out a negative light on him and his administration and anyone thats been doing this work for as long as we have knows that that is absolutely not the caves and its actually you know discussing yeah yeah let me just say you know the New York Times has long had an iraq section at the bottom of the front page where they list in the stakes that they make the media are brought in by human doings people make mistakes all the time but the key point indeed about fake news real fake news is that its a form of proper care and when he was created entirely to deceive people so its not an honest mistake its not something thats just false its something thats intentionally false ok let me show you this we asked our audience. To define fake news and we got so many definitions have a look at some of them. Why the confusion. I mean everybodys i desire to see the nation why. This is why your program is so great because your audience members are so smart but i actually dont use the term asterix that success or its news people this reason because actually it means only Different Things to so many different people and its actually kind entirely meaningless and i do love this dream because you and i was a long time to discuss really complex issues but we shouldnt be doing a show about this because trump is one he had a sensation like the genesis of run towards him and now having a show discussing it i know as ever since lengths of coverage and we shouldnt be doing it because the gentleman was and is dangerous all right yes well i mean if i dont agree with that i disagree completely gone trap is doing is undermining our media hes undermining our legitimate media when he calls out. On c. N. N. And says your fake and what he bellows about n. B. C. And the New York Times and the wall street journal and the knives things that we have him on videotape saying when he makes ours it is attacking the very foundation of media and journalism in a free society thats exactly thats why its so important then eventually go be degree its so important that we should trivialize it i get a little bit away its very let me put this to you this is a scene i have a look here what he shared with us it is incredibly frustrating that we get the time to get to see by continued use and we just go across here to. Has been talking about. And she actually wont even say the word she says Asterix Asterix and Asterix Asterix and i remember the very first time we talked he said it was a misinformation system clown you wouldnt even say the word can we but we have to look at how debating this without even saying the word we always with misinformation which is it mistakes of people dont mean any harm do you mean this is. To make sure when people know its humbling deliberately because you know i was not propaganda and my time news is its focused on text a bigger issue would be shools the biggest beat was it just information be sure means videos and actually we keep posting on these websites were missing that the platforms are analyzing visuals we dont take them seriously actually much more powerful because our brains a lot less likely to be critical of issues so just at the time is going to help i completely agree with paul and this is one of the serious issues weve already faced the press globally is terrifying were going to demand a. Different composition a different day about really serious topic all right just say that the truth is that we if we can take this fake news conversation and leverage it to have the bigger conversations and the more important conversation about how we understand the information ecosystem as a whole thats whats really important to me its that we do not understand and we do not certainly in the United States really teach our students to understand the entire information landscape and that everything from misinformation to in accuracies to back to fiction to credibility to bias to all of these layers the information ecosystem is so nuanced and by just focusing on fake news were limiting ourselves to to being worried just are we do is this true and those are not the conversations that are going to help us understand the information ecosystem which we are living in and its really important that we move beyond fake news in that way and i agree with claire and paula this is really vital so how can we leverage this moment in time to put a spotlight on these bigger issues about understanding information as it exists today ok lets assume that friend left you know lisa this is martin. Type for a moment this is not know the from c. B. S. Just i just want to clarify whats happening on wednesday says the white house will be announcing fake news awards later today this is real i. Sure youre all waiting to see if your pick winners this is sanders shes telling reporters hes here shes the white house spokesperson as you well know lets go back to senator jeff flake hes a republican senator and we talk about leveraging this conversation what is important he pointed out earlier today on the senate floor have a look this feedback loop is disgraceful mr president not only has a past year seeing an american president borrow despotic language to refer to the free press but it seems he is now in turn inspired dictators in authoritarians with his own language that is reprehensible. When lister here says on twitter she tweeted this to us. This is about news leaders what they dont like the truth this is this is what were really talking about were not talking about news that is a real were talking about what political leaders dont want to tell their public. Absolutely and now because of social media positions has reliable the media to get a message out. Five six seven years ago now they can talk directly to them people will die social media said by discrediting the Mainstream Media they say you dont do that dont listen to that information just come straight to me you cant trust them so this is possibly the only social media in societies but he says that it is because any one seasons a good dad its much information they dont like him basically because they dont like what they say dangerous and so were being told i agree let me just Say Something about visual media though because and this is important and claire made this point to her earlier you know theres a general expression seeing is believing and what that does is it makes a video or a photograph much more likely to be able to deceive someone because we sort of psychologically think if were looking at an image or even a an image in motion then somehow it must be true and this actually vastly predates tromped is an infant imprimis. A photograph of Abraham Lincoln in which he looks very president ial turns out they put Abraham Lincolns face on someone elses or attractive yes exactly or for example the thought harkening of a simpsons photograph when he was first arrested you know to make him look darker so i mean this has been gone for a while but. Its been taken now to a new level and in addition to what where saying about we need to be very strong in opposing what trump is trying to do at the same time we do need to encourage people to be more skeptical of what theyre seeing with their eyes if they see an image or they video because its so easy to manipulate them and thats why Media Literacy education and put. You know plug for that work is zone vital because Media Literacy education is looking at all media and not just news also advertising also entertainment visual illiterate see all of this stuff matters and again it goes to the back are we asking the right questions and i think whats interesting about whats happening in the us right now just today this idea that our president is having a fake news awards show is is really mind blowing to people in the United States and especially because you know what are the resources and what are the time and energy of our government you know what is it going towards right and so theres a lot of people in the us that are obviously very disturbed by the time and energy thats going into this and we need to be really wary of that see misty knight says he or she is on or he is on a its night says you fight fake news by not believing everything you can make sure you seek the truth by looking into everything and making up your mind based of present facts and reliable sources missing thats potentially a journalist but genesis is the public is much more informed about how corrupt government officials use false flags to achieve that decide who sells og you finding that the public is now getting much more informed. I think what everyone said we have is the trust in the types of institutions is dropping so trust in governmental democracies or the press and thats why we are worried so i think one level these conversations have meant that there we have great training more people in have actually analyze the information on the beaches that you are seeing having much more interesting conversations about the quality of information that we have in our social police but my concern is that almost this discussion as well is also turning people are into about institutions in general so i worry that its easy now groups at hard trust my quality to like contrast my local journalist and were going to turn inwards to one another and i dont think thats the kind of society that we want to live in thats ok i agree i dont really get how it you know how theres a lot of truth. Now as never before in history any individual does have a way of confirming sources confirming stories and i always tell my students if you see something online anything and it strikes you as maybe not being true or completely true its never been easier for you to google that phrase or term and say well what is the New York Times what is c. N. N. Saying it was it has fox theyre saying otherwise we have all of these sources and so these are tools that we now have which we didnt have you know it a couple of decades ago or even ten years ago to basically track and see whether what where seeing it in one place is true or not let me seventy of your comment from right. Here the Elementary School teacher said to take his kids between the ages of ten this is what he told us that hes doing about how. We teach our other Elementary School students about think means by. First introducing them to the idea of images and how images are naturally biased and then looking at how altered images. If entering the question whether they really protege what theyre supposed to or if they tell a different story and that serves as our entry point for talking about how news articles are biased and how altering facts can also create a different story that beers away from the truth michelle this is your love this is your life this is what you did yes education. Yes so rachel is one of our wonderful members and she is one of the thousands of folks in the u. S. Really working incredibly hard in classrooms every day trying to decipher some of this this conversation and its really important and i think that you know just to add on to the conversation about skepticism i think its really important to note that another danger the fake news conversation is the fact that it could make people send a call and that is not Media Literacy and thats not an affective a way an effective way to maneuver and navigate this information we need some informed skepticism as sad that its really really important that we teach you know people how to ask questions about all the media theyre there seeing and ask questions before they share and ask questions about you know different sources and really create these habits of inquiry and that ad is about skepticism we dont want people to stop believing anything is true and thats the danger of the fake news conversation and it certainly doesnt give any credit to a very hard working press that we have in the United States you know we we its a really bad time to be a journalist in the u. S. And thats something thats very concerning to all of us and education interesting comment here about legislation and what germanys actually doing about fake news. How do you stop. Being in germany with a lot i know youve been working with the e. U. Youve been looking we have lots of different organizations about how do we stop this tide of fake names legislation. I think thats a going pop id write it. Let me just pick up the crack i know youve been working of and then paul i know youre eager to get in so youre a follow up to that so this party goes back to my issues with definition because if the disgrace that we use it is not helpful it may be different its a million different people and you cant regulate something when you not play what youre regulating and in fact the general is actually mount hate speech but what we see is the patterns are so terrified about being fined that it already has only been around since the president made a lot to contend the taking down because the terror going to be fine taking down more than we would be happy with so its definitely moving into censorship so we had a new car from france talking about potentially passing along and what its like i think in the u. S. Were very worried about regulation but my fear in here at the number of different European Countries is that this is a kneejerk reaction because theres panic around the town but until we can actually see those what we need we need one hundred percent it advocated news websites that are made for profit or we talking about misleading content my compliance and content means because you lose me basically you know this is very complicated and so many places were not completely where we are even able to do that because we cant agree on the terms paul. Well i agree with that completely what claire said its extremely dangerous to bring the government in in any kind of regulation of media first of all here in the United States that violates off First Amendment which says Congress Shall make no law abridging freedom of speech or the press and that First Amendment is extremely important and has never been more important when you have someone like donald trump in the white house and he could order the f. C. C. To basically fine c. N. N. And n. B. C. Any time they broadcast the story that trump found to his disliking which we know happens probably dozens of times a day so i think. Germanys law was well intentioned but its the worst possible response to fake news a far response this is asking the social media to take better care to the extent that they can in their dissemination of. Yeah i think its going to take a combination of solutions right and obviously its no surprise that my my advice is that you cant stand because the truth is this regulation also addresses todays big news rate it doesnt account for whats going to happen in five years down the line in ten years down the line and thats where education comes in because what were looking at is really building skills great in skills that can you know surpass Technology Changes and media change this and thats whats really important about education as a tool to resolve some of these issues its not obviously going to you know help us solve all the ills in the world but education is really really key to the solutions of these problems ok so says hey on twitter teaching students about needs can be a lot of fun for both myself as an educator and for the students but it also can be a huge challenge i feel like this is going to be the part of every single curriculum if not already in the very near future i guess im just wondering what you make of this facebook has a lot of work to do. Personal challenge for twenty eighteen his new years resolution was making facebook better. It was some of the viewers might know that there was an announcement last week when facebook said its actually going to change its algorithms but be so in our feet in facebook we much more like to see content shared by our friends and family and content that were engaging around so some people are arguing that this is them say you know what news is hard its difficult to publish and decide what to publish and so you know to think about pollution the way that how do you clean up the streets of facebook and theres something wrong doing that that this is why that made this news i think is a it is more complex than that but i think they have recognized that Mark Zuckerberg has gone from just our election in in the u. S. In november twenty sixth there was a crazy idea that actually after its assets news played a part to say yes this is really difficult we can do what we can to you know what i think we might go back to more capital which im being simplistic but my worry is that actually is more will be will get they need years from social media the idea that we can take more of that content away from the news feed because its difficult and people dont want to talk about it and you know the stuff that we really talk about engaging Facebook Community suspected controversial content opinionated content and my fear is that the algorithm is going to be driven in a way that we just get will sensational news and not be you know the information that we need to know as citizens living in a society oh i agree were on right now about their facebook conversation is that you know just godless and whatever changes theyre going to make and i think its going to continue to have bar whats most important to me from a Media Literacy perspective is there transparency about those changes are they being honest with their consumers are they being honest with the audience and to the people that are using their say how can they be more transparent about their algorithms about the way they sell ads about the way they you know manage our news feeds and i think so i think you know you can focus a little bit on the changes theyre making but i think whats more important is to really make sure that theyre being transparent about those changes and giving us that information sharp or that i mean yeah ill just add theres a bill thats being proposed in the u. S. Senate called the artist act that again would penalize facebook if it. Put up an ad and was it was not correctly identified as now its a its a very important point and facebook is right to have made this change where there are more carefully i got to finding. That she was there already identified newspapers on television i recall every shade. The underbrush who knew that we could spend so long talking about something thats not well. Michelle she lip can and travel little thank you so much for helping us on patmos time where are we going with face. To the news of wars by the president of the United States appreciating conversation as a waste. Stream. On the benefit of saddam people. So bad they see the importance of the other guys. With. Documentaries that open your eyes. At this time on aljazeera. Aljazeera. Where every. Parts finisher. He. Was. Facing realities growing up when did you realize that you were living in a special place a socalled secret city getting to the heart of the matter the mean maher government calls you a gringo lead terrorist hear their story on talk to aljazeera at this time. Celebrations in ethiopia after the release of an Opposition Leader and hundreds of other prisoners as part of a government are missed