Explain the differences between descriptive and prescriptive issues and conclusions.

a) Explain the differences between descriptive and prescriptive issues and conclusions.

b) What clues can you use to help you find the issue and conclusion?

c) Some conclusions are implied by a communicator rather
than made explicit. What clues might help you recognize an implied
conclusion? Can you think of situations in which communicators are
likely to prefer implied conclusions?

d) How do conclusions differ from opinions?

Recall in Week 1 we examined fact-finding on the Internet and how a
lot of “facts” are actually not substantiated with evidence and
essentially untrue! In this assignment we will examine the fact-checking
websites:

www.snopes.com (Internet fact-checking resource)

www.politifact.com (Fact-checking journalism)

www.emergent.info (a real-time rumor tracker)

Consider for instance the following on Snopes:

Do Videos Show Magnets Sticking to People’s Arms After COVID-19 Vaccine?

The claim:

Viral videos showed magnets “stuck” on people’s arms after they
received COVID-19 vaccines, purportedly demonstrating that the vaccines
contained metal devices or ingredients.

The Rating:

Conclusion of Snope’s fact-checking – the claim is FALSE!

After you check out these three sites, continue to the fact-checking scraper research website.

Let’s take a look at the following “Fake News Detection” site from the Discourse Processing Lab at Simon Fraser University.

Step 1) Use your browser and go to:
Fake News Detection (sfu.ca)
Step 2) Scroll down to the “Scrape Fact-Checking Websites” section.

Step 3) Experiment with each of the three fact-checking website
options. Click Download to retrieve a CSV (comma delimited/excel file).

If you take a look at the CSV file(s) you download you can
examine the results of scraping the articles (from an archive 2018 and
older). I have attached a sample scrape file for your review. [Note
Column A tells us if the claim is true/false, and Column C tells us the
“Question” and column F the “claim” (redundant rows are actually
different, they are one row for each source used in the fact-checking].

Your Task:

Identify 3 articles related to the COVID situation (Any COVID topic such as Vaccine, etc..).

For each article do the following:

1) Provide the URL link to the original source and the title of the article.

2) Write your own “Issue” and “Conclusion” based on this article.

3) use any of the fact-checking websites mentioned above to confirm the claim/facts if it is fake or not. Example: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/magnets-covid-vaccine/ “Viral videos showed magnets “stuck” on people’s arms after they
received COVID-19 vaccines, purportedly demonstrating that the vaccines
contained metal devices or ingredients” is FALSE.

[2 pts each article analysis x 3 = 6 pts]

For your answers please do not exceed a total of 1 page,
letter size (8.5 x 11″), 1 inch margin all around with a font of Times
New Roman size 10 single-spaced. You can submit either a Word document
or a PDF document.

You may use a second page strictly for the list of references
used to formulate your answers. All references must be in the proper
format (i.e. MLA, APA, IEEE, ACM… your pick) and each reference must
be properly cited (used) in your answers.

Submit your document containing all the answers (clearly number each answer) and the reference section.

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