It played a significant role in our last presidential election, possibly swaying the result. It’s easily spread far and wide on social media platforms. It’s even often used by President Donald Trump to fire back at media outlets after negative press. It’s become a buzzword in our modern politics. Fake news.

And as National Public Radio noted in an article last December, fake news can have real-life consequences, like an incident at a Washington D.C. pizzeria, where a man wielding a rifle and claiming to be “self-investigating” an online conspiracy theory entered the shop and fired his weapon.

Experts argue media literacy is the answer to countering misleading content. Now, the Denver Public Library is joining the fight against fake news – offering classes to help students build the literacy skills required to consume media and cull out what’s fake.

Appropriately called How to Spot Fake News and offered through the library’s reference services, the course will arm students with tricks and tools for looking at websites, news articles “and their crazy uncle’s emails with a more critical eye.”

In designing the course, the library will use tools from the International Federation of Library Associations including an infographic, based on a FactCheck.org article, with tips for spotting misleading news.

“Fake news and other misinformation spreads because people share it without realizing what it is,” the library said in a post on the City of Denver website. “That means the only way to stop it is to learn to spot it, so we can stop it in its tracks instead of helping it spread.”

The library is offering instruction in the classroom or at the Central Library and even the lesson plan to educators. Email Robin Filipczak for more information.