CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON LITERACY POLICY AND PRACTICE
Barbara Comber & Hilary Janks | George G. Hruby  |  Editors
Working Critically and Creatively
With Fake News
Barbara Comber, Helen Grant
W
e revised this column after a week of never-­
ending news headlines about bad behavior:
Australian cricketers tampering with the
ball in South Africa, spies being accused of attempting
to murder their fellow ex-­spies, world leaders creating
trade wars, politicians disregarding indigenous owner-
ship of country, and so forth. Simultaneously, a line-­up
of world leaders promised nuclear disarmament, jobs,
prosperity, and cheaper power. Yet, images of children
maimed and starving as their homelands are bombed,
or ruthlessly removed from their families, haunt us. We
want to turn it off. We don’t want to listen to any more of
it, nor our children to see it. Some of the children in our
classrooms and neighborhoods have endured or fled
similar conditions. In the mix of actually horrific world
events and injustices, how might educators properly ad-
dress the phenomenon of fake news? Fake news is fabri-
cated accounts without any basis in fact. What are our
ethical pedagogical responsibilities?
Critical media literacy scholars have noted that
there is nothing new about fake news, except perhaps
in its contemporary blatant appropriation by differ-
ent protagonists to different ends (Luke, Sefton-­Green,
Graham, Kellner, & Ladwig, 2018; Williams, 2018). In
“an ‘age of digital disorientation,’…the very meaning of
‘reality’ itself seems to be up for grabs in a ‘post-­truth’
digital media culture controlled by powerful corporate
and state actors, and defined by speed, immediacy, and
information oversaturation” (Williams, 2018, p. 53). It is
this particular mix that makes addressing critical me-
dia literacy as an integral part of everyday education so
urgent. Although some students are competent digital
social media communicators, many are unaware of the
potential for manipulation.
Not only educators recognize this urgency. Laura
Boldrini, the former president and speaker of the
Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Italian
Parliament, initiated a project with the Italian Ministry
of Education for children to become “fake-­news hunt-
ers” (Horowitz, 2017, para. 22). As she put it, “‘fake news
drips drops of poison into our daily web diet and we
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy    Vol. 62   No. 3   pp. 329–332
end up infected without even realizing it’” (as quoted
in Horowitz, 2017, para. 4). In the United Kingdom, the
All-­P arty Parliamentary Group on Literacy and the
National Literacy Trust organized the Commission on
Fake News and the Teaching of Critical Literacy Skills in
Schools, which conducted an evidence review published
in August 2017 (Picton & Teravainen, 2017). A recent
seminar conducted by the Permanent Representation
of Sweden to the European Union, which importantly
brought together politicians, journalists, and academ-
ics, focused on ways of dealing with disinformation
(Government Offices of Sweden, 2017). A conference
in Helsinki in May 2016 on media and information lit-
eracy delved into the production of digital resources
by the Nordic and Baltic nations and was parlayed
into the book Citizens in a Mediated World: A Nordic-
Baltic Perspective on Media and Information Literacy
(Wadbring & Pekkala, 2017). It is somewhat ironic that
critical literacy is now seen as important across party
politics given its virtual disappearance from the official
curriculum in a number of nations. Nevertheless, edu-
cators may be able to count this “digital disorientation”
as a helpful disruption to reductive understandings of
literacy and seize the opportunity it presents to devise
critical multimedia literacies.
What does it mean to educate when anyone with
a mobile phone can produce news that may go viral at
any moment and when the credentials for being a world
leader no longer include ethics and morality. Teachers,
taking a critical literacy approach, have worked with
students for eons to interrogate media texts, looking for
bias, what’s said and what’s not, how the language works
to position readers, the political histories of the outlet
and its editors, and so forth. However, in a so-­called post-­
truth world, where fake news has become a truism in its
HELEN GRANT is a teacher researcher at Gilles Street
Primary School, Adelaide, SA, Australia; email helen.
grant28@schools.sa.gov.au.
329 doi: 10.1002/jaal.905   © 2018 International Literacy Association
 CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON LITERACY POLICY AND PRACTICE
own right, what does this mean for critical literacy in
classrooms? How can teachers make everyday texts and
their encapsulation in sound bites and Twitter feeds the
object of study in classrooms? For example, how might
the concept of fake news become the object of analysis in
literacy and language lessons, and to what end?
Globally, educators face urgent questions about how
critical literacy pedagogy can be designed to examine
the politics of language with diverse student cohorts.
Helen (second author), an elementary English as an
Additional Language teacher, has found that if we build
strong, challenging learning around problem solving
and critical literacy, the consequences can be cathartic
in a world where people may feel helpless. Here, Helen
shares her approach to interrogating fake news with
elementary and middle school students, including re-
cently arrived refugee and migrant students learning
English as a second language. She does this within a pol-
icy context of a national curriculum and national test-
ing of literacy (see Australian Curriculum, Assessment
and Reporting Authority, 2016).
Teacher as Critical
and Creative Reader
My starting point in designing a study of fake news is
to find links to the curriculum. I read the Australian
Curriculum (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and
Reporting Authority, 2016) looking for opportunities to
engage students in critical reading and analysis of con-
temporary everyday texts. I scan the strands of English
and media arts; the content descriptions of language,
literature, and literacy; the general capabilities; and the
achievement standards from lower to higher to cater to
the range of students’ needs. In other words, I read the
curriculum actively looking for both implicit and ex-
plicit references to critical literacy or related practices.
Rather than mourn what’s not stated and a more radical
curricular history, I read to seek ways of making space
for the critical. For example,
By the end of Year 4, students describe and discuss simi-
larities and differences between media artworks they make
and view. They discuss how and why they and others use im-
ages, sound and text to make and present media artworks.
(media arts achievement standard for years 3 and 4)
By the end of Year 6, students explain how points of view,
ideas and stories are shaped and portrayed in media art-
works they make, share and view. They explain the pur-
poses and audiences for media artworks made in different
cultures, times and places. (media arts achievement stan-
dard for years 5 and 6)
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy   Vol. 62   No. 3
By the end of Year 8, students identify and analyse how
representations of social values and points of view are por-
trayed in the media artworks they make, distribute and
view. They evaluate how they and other makers and users of
media artworks from different cultures, times and places
use genre and media conventions and technical and sym-
bolic elements to make meaning. They identify and analyse
the social and ethical responsibility of the makers and us-
ers of media artworks. (media arts achievement standard
for years 7 and 8)
Highlighting the verbs/processes in the text pro-
vides a starting point for my planning, such as evalu-
ate, discuss, and analyze. Official expectations range
from students discussing texts by the end of year 4, ex-
plaining texts by the end of year 6, and identifying and
analyzing texts with awareness of social and ethical
responsibility by the end of year 8. This goal of ethical
and social responsibility always underpins my teach-
ing across all year levels. I know that critical questions
can be asked at any stage of reading and viewing and are
important for students who are also learning literacy in
a new language. These designated learning outcomes
provide the go-­a head for my working critically and cre-
atively with fake news. I choose my focus and design
learning, questioning, and research around this.
I am always searching for examples of texts of vari-
ous kinds and genres that will connect with young
people and address big questions. The fake news topic
was no exception. I selected and curated a range of
texts that I could use with students to illustrate key el-
ements of fake news and how it worked. To start with
a shared experience, we viewed the “Fake News” (2016)
episode of Behind the News, an Australian Broadcasting
Corporation program developed for use by teachers
and students to explore how news is produced. We read
a transcript of the show. We highlighted unfamiliar
words and phrases and started a glossary of terminol-
ogy—words, dictionary meanings, my meanings, or in
students’ own words in English or their first language—
to make sure they remembered the terms. This proved
challenging because terminology (e.g., discriminate,
sponsored) and tags such as “rumour mill,” “extreme
bias, and “a little too crazy to be true” can be difficult to
explain to some new English learners.
After the screening of the Behind the News episode,
we explored PowerPoint selections of various images
of current world leaders, authorized images, and those
in which multimedia players had used an image as tar-
get for commentary. I also searched reputable web-
sites for examples of fake news that could be used for
educational purposes and found “California’s Velcro
Crop Under Challenge” by Ken Umbach (http://www.
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 CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON LITERACY POLICY AND PRACTICE
umbachconsulting.com/miscellany/velcro.html), DHMO.
org (http://www.dhmo.org/), and “The Pacific Northwest
Tree Octopus” (https://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/links.
html). I also hunted down and collected as many appro-
priate cartoons as I could find, about a range of leaders,
that used humor to make a point. I developed a resource
focused on political cartooning and fake news. Working
critically and creatively with fake news took consider-
able preparation to ensure its relevance and suitability
for my students.
I try to simplify and clarify the complex learning
idea or theme. It is important to know more about my
students to understand my next moves.
Who Are My Students?
As of April 2018, our 400 students represent 46 differ-
ent groups in terms of language, culture, and ethnicity.
In one class, I have a group of Chinese, Indian, Iranian,
Russian, Brazilian, Japanese Brazilian, and Icelandic stu-
dents. What do these students bring to the learning? My
approach always begins with identifying assets: global
experiences, languages, literacies, political histories,
knowledge of popular culture, or whatever is “the latest
in their lives.” I invite students to share (in turns) their
musical playlists and what influences them. One student
included classical Brazilian, Brazilian rappers, and other
popular songs. We analyzed his playlist and considered
what it suggests about the culture, the instruments, the
fashion, and the uptake of various genres. It may be hip-­
hop in Portuguese about contemporary culture. This
frequently involves three-­way translation and interpre-
tation for one another. This is when it’s really exciting!
Regarding the study of fake news, I need to be aware
that some students are very reticent and suspicious be-
cause in their homelands they did not have a chance to
have their voices heard. An Afghani girl was amazed to
see the workings of our school’s Student Representative
Council, where students consider ways to address prob-
lems. In considering world leaders in my class, it was
crucial for me to show respect to all. Although some stu-
dents are extremely knowledgeable about politics and
inform me about current situations, it is necessary to ex-
ercise an element of discretion in what we do and share.
Democracy often comes up as a topic for discussion.
Designing and Enacting a Fake News
Curriculum: Having a Laugh
I am conscious that so much of world and local news
is depressing, so part of my approach to this topic and
critical literacy more broadly is to incorporate as much
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy   Vol. 62   No. 3
humor as I can. Being able to understand how humor
works is key cultural and linguistic knowledge, particu-
larly for recently arrived students whose first language
or dialect is not English. Cartooning is a key creative
and critical response to fake news. I collect a range of
images in which the creators have played with existing
images of world leaders as social commentary. Not sur-
prisingly, all of my students recognized Trump. Tasks
have included analyzing examples of cartoons about
world leaders before creating a large cartoon to tell an
alternative message of their own. After viewing pho-
tographic and cartoon images and memes of a range of
leaders, we discussed questions such as these:
■ What do you notice about the images (e.g., who/
what, clothes, gestures, gaze, colors, focal point, fore-
ground/background, rule of thirds, did they follow or
break the visual rules?)?
■ Is there a difference in the terms prime minister,
president, and chancellor? Where do these differ-
ent titles comes from? How many of the leaders are
women, and how many are men?
■ How are leaders portrayed? What do the images
symbolize?
In this unit, I showed students how I deconstruct ex-
amples of fake news, such as DHMO.org and the piece on
velcro crops. Increasingly, however, flexibility is needed
to plan appropriate activities for different classes,
groups of students, and complexities of concepts. I draw
on my growing collection of slideshows on topics such
as communication, photography and film techniques,
visual literacies, gestures, cartooning, and professional
artists’ work to help explain specific and complex con-
cepts. I start each weekly lesson with a visual review of
what we have learned/done/viewed so far, and students
draw visual maps to continually add to and build on.
I always include a focus on positive action, brain-
storming ways that we can influence and change our
world. I invite students to research different areas us-
ing websites in their first languages. One student found
a fake news item on a Japanese site about how eating
chocolate helps in weight loss!
Our Summary: Building Analytical
Repertoires for the Fake News Times
Critical literacy involves collecting texts beyond the
classroom to provide students with curated sets of im-
ages and texts that show diversity and contradiction,
as well as modeling good journalistic practice. A key
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 CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON LITERACY POLICY AND PRACTICE
principle is to work with multiple texts so students are
able to compare and analyze how the artists and writers
constructed their messages. Learning task design and
assessment are informed by relevant, authorized learn-
ing outcomes. The fundamental curricular goal is that
students learn to “identify and analyse the social and
ethical responsibility of the makers and users of media
artworks” and how texts work in the world. Fake news
is an ideal topic for critical media educators. When
Helen’s students realize the kinds of things that can be
discussed, they bring in texts found in everyday life in
their communities, making the corpus of material open,
dynamic, and multilingual—a positive productive dis-
ruption to business as usual.
REFERENCES
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority.
(2016). Australian Curriculum (Rev. ed.). Sydney, NSW,
Australia: Author. Retrieved from https://www.australian
curriculum.edu.au
Fake news [Online series episode]. (2016, November 29). In
Behind the News. Sydney, NSW, Australia: Australian
Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved from http://www.abc.
net.au/btn/story/s4581015.htm
Government Offices of Sweden. (2017). A practical approach on
how to cope with disinformation. Retrieved from https://
www.government.se/articles/2017/10/a-practical-approach-
on-how-to-cope-with-disinformation/
Horowitz, J. (2017, October 18). In Italian schools, reading,
writing and recognizing fake news. The New York Times.
Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/18/world/
europe/italy-fake-news.html
Luke, A., Sefton-Green, J., Graham, P., Kellner, D., & Ladwig,
J. (2018). Digital ethics, political economy, and the curricu-
lum: This changes everything. In K.A. Mills, A. Storniauolo,
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy   Vol. 62   No. 3
A. Smith, & J.Z. Pandya (Eds.), Handbook of writing, lit-
eracies, and education in digital cultures (pp. 251–262). New
York, NY: Routledge.
Picton, I., & Teravainen, A. (2017). Fake news and critical lit-
eracy: An evidence review. London, UK: National Literacy
Trust.
Wadbring, I., & Pekkala, L. (Eds.). (2017). Citizens in a mediated
world: A Nordic-Baltic perspective on media and information
literacy. Gothenburg, Sweden: Nordicom.
Williams, R. (2018). Fighting “fake news” in an age of digital
disorientation: Towards “real news”, critical media literacy
education, and independent journalism for 21st century
citizens. In C.Z. Goering & P.L. Thomas (Eds.), Critical me-
dia literacy and fake news in post-truth America (pp. 53–65).
Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Sense.
The department editors welcome reader comments.
BARBARA COMBER is a research professor in
the School of Education at the University of
South Australia, Adelaide, and an adjunct
professor in the School of Early Childhood
and Inclusive Education at the Queensland
University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia;
email barbara.comber@unisa.edu.au.
HILARY JANKS is a professor emerita in the
School of Education at the University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa;
email hilary.janks@gmail.com.
GEORGE G. HRUBY is the executive director
of the Collaborative Center for Literacy
Development and an associate research
professor in the College of Education at the
University of Kentucky, Lexington, USA; email
george.hruby@uky.edu.
332 November/December 2018    literacyworldwide.org