Introduction
It's important to tell fact from fiction online, especially in the age of generative AI. Even stories that are technically true, or memes that make us chuckle, can be misleading due to missing context.
Review your ballot
- Divide into teams of 2 or more students.
- Visit Ballotpedia's local ballot lookup and enter your zip code.
Click to review the arguments pro and con for each candidate or issue, where available
Evaluate claims about candidates
- Visit the "Elections" tab in our Class Sheet (link in #reference)
- Write your team's number in the "Team" cell to claim a candidate or issue.
⚠️ This choice is first-come, first-serve, with one team per candidate or issue.
- Search the web (or follow a link from Ballotpedia) for an opinion, pro or con, for that candidate or issue. The opinion may come in the form of a news article, candidate website, video, ad, or meme.
- In the second cell, add a URL for what you found and explain the claim it implies, eg
This meme shows a portrait of George Washington with sunglasses and the caption "I Brexit'd before it was cool." The implied claim seems to be that Britain's choice to leave European regulatory oversight was sensible.
- In the third cell, estimate and explain the claim's validity, taking into account any missing context, eg
20% The comparison is funny but the historical analogy is deeply flawed. The US didn't leave the EU, it left Britain. While Britain also sought "independence" from Europe during Brexit in 2020, the motivations for Washington's 1775 revolution were different, including taxation without representation, British soldiers quartering in buildings, and legal constraints on colonizing native land.
ℹ️ You can write your analysis in the same row as another team, as long as you keep your analysis in the same column.