Share if you love Jesus. Scroll past if you follow the devil. Most Christians have encountered phony posts on our feeds meant to rile us up. But not everything we see on social media is so obvio
Share if you love Jesus. Scroll past if you follow the devil.
Most Christians have encountered phony posts on our feeds meant to rile us up. But not everything we see on social media is so obviously absurd. As online spaces increase in importance, we urgently need to consider how to love our neighbors on the internet—and this includes sharing the truth.
Rachel I. Wightman has seen this problem firsthand as a librarian with over a decade of experience instructing students in information literacy. In Faith and Fake News, she shares her expertise with average Christians. This timely and essential guide explains the information landscape and its tendency toward thought bubbles, discusses techniques for fact-checking and evaluating sources, and offers suggestions on ways to engage with our neighbors online while bearing witness to Christ and the truth.
Catholic Library World
“[Faith and Fake News is very informative and is recommended for anyone looking to understand the subject on a deeper level. A great resource for high school, public, and academic libraries.”
Cynthia Beach in The Englewood Review of Books
“Faith and Fake News is marvelously helpful. . . . Wightman expresses her concerns for the space where Christian experience and social media intersect. It strikes me as very valuable—as are Wightman’s answers.”
The Christian Century
“[Wightman offers a user-friendly guide for analyzing claims and provides strategies for dealing with emotions that arise when we consider claims not to our liking.”
Publishers Weekly
“Christians overwhelmed by the media landscape should take a look.”
Library Journal
“This book gives sound advice to readers who engage in debates on social media platforms.”
“The powers and principalities want us scrolling smartphones in constant anxiety and suspicion. What if we had a wise and kind specialist by our side to help us listen to the Holy Spirit rather than our fears? Rachel Wightman is the sort of guide you want to help you consider the sources, to discern well amidst the information deluge, and even to love your neighbor online.”
—Jason Byassee, senior pastor of Timothy Eaton Memorial Church in Toronto, Ontario
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Part 1: The Information Landscape
1. Algorithms and Filter Bubbles
2. The Wide-Open Information Landscape
3. A World of Fake News
Part 2: Evaluating Information
4. Noticing Our Emotions
5. Learning to Evaluate
Part 3: Deciding What to Do
6. Purposefully Seeking Out New Perspectives
7. Loving Our Neighbors
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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