Civics for Adults – Misinformation, Fake News and Political Propaganda

We are overwhelmed with messages from politicians, news sources and other me-dia. Learn to distinguish truth from fiction using critical thinking strategies. The work-shop uses real world examples of political ads, news headlines, logical fallacies, graphs / charts, the effect of word choice in messaging, statistical data and other types of information in a “what do you see here? / what is missing?” type of format.

The last part is about finding accurate information. The goal is to help people become their own “factchecker”.

Donna L. Cohen, MEd, MLIS

Background. A teacher and librarian, Donna is now focused on presenting non-partisan workshops for adults that fill in gaps in civic and political understanding and that encourage critical evaluation of information. She is actively involved in various civic/political projects. From 1996 to 2014, under the name D. L. Cohen Information Services, as a consulting and freelance librarian, she conducted information needs assessments, created virtual and physical libraries, provided website usability testing and evaluation, and designed website architecture.

In the 1970’s, Donna worked in social service agencies. From New England she then came to Oregon, received her M.Ed., and taught Industrial Arts for the next 12 years [Woodworking, Metalworking, etc.]. After returning from the Peace Corps in 1994, where she taught at a college of education in Botswana, she went to library school at the University of British Columbia. In 1996, she returned to Oregon where she built an information professional business. She does still occasional on-call reference services for Beaverton City Library.