This semester went by so fast, and I’m really pleased with everything I got out of ‘Now, This’. While I entered the studio with a vague idea about how important fact-checking is for holding media outlets accountable, I didn’t truly understand the scope until I finished this class.

While I knew, especially in the Trump-era, that ‘fake news’ is an extremely prevalent issue, this class taught me how easily fake news can be spread via social media, and how insanely often public figures, media outlets and politicians alike bend the truth to propagate their ideas.

This class also helped me confront some of my own issues with confirmation bias. While I have never shared posts on my own social media if I haven’t verified them to be 100% factual, I definitely was guilty of only reading articles and posts that fit my personal world-view. I also often believed articles based off only their headline, as long as they matched my views.

Now that I have completed this course, I find myself looking much deeper into the articles that I read to verify if they’re actually coming from legitimate sources, or are sharing factual information. I also feel like this class gave me the skill-set to do so, as I know what to look for to confirm whether or not an article is ‘fake’ or factual.

This came in handy when we were creating our prototype for our RMIT ABC Fact check, on the gender wage gap.  When researching other articles outside of the chosen fact check, I was shocked to find so much conflicting information on the topic. I had to cross-verify many different sources, to ensure that any additional information we included was indeed correct. This allowed us to create a finished product which I am really proud of, as I feel like not only was it engaging but it also allowed us to use most of the knowledge we acquired during the semester.

Overall I really enjoyed this semester! The fact-checking skills I have gained will be useful both in my everyday life and for my career. I’m really grateful that I was able to be a part of this class and learn so much about the culture surrounding fake news and the importance of fact-checking in the current media landscape.