Fight Fake News: Critical Reading of Digital Texts and Spotting Fake News and Disinformation Tactics

Fake news and disinformation have become a pressing issue in the Philippines affecting political perceptions and choices, health information, and disaster awareness of the people. In this action research, the knowledge of pre-service teachers who majored in English were determined and an intervention was implemented in response to their knowledge needs with regard to their digital reading skills and identifying fake news and disinformation tactics. Data were gathered using a researcher-made test which underwent validation by relevant experts, reliability testing, and pilot testing. Data gathered were treated utilizing the descriptive and inferential research designs. To determine the knowledge in digital reading skills and identifying fake news and disinformation tactics, mean and standard deviation were used. To determine the difference in their knowledge between the two variables, t-test was used; and to determine the effect size and meaningfulness of the intervention, Cohen’s D was used. Results show that the pre-service teachers’ knowledge of critical reading and identifying fake news and disinformation tactics before the intervention was average and progressed into excellent after the intervention. T-test results showed that the outcome of the intervention is highly significant and Cohen’s D results showed the large effect in the intervention providing a practical significance of the outcome. A recommendation was given to strengthen the teaching of critical reading skills of pre-service teachers in digital formats and the skill in spotting fake news and disinformation tactics.