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Postdigital Humans pp 89–108Cite as

Postdigital Truths: Educational Reflections on Fake News and Digital Identities

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Part of the Postdigital Science and Education book series (PSE)

Abstract

The lives of young people have successfully been infiltrated by multiple online actors—many unbeknownst to them. In this chapter, we wonder how young people manage the information they receive from different sources and how they think about and deal with manipulated information, also known as fake news. We are taking a postdigital approach that allows us to describe the normalisation of interactions with digital materials. Students’ lives are entangled and their digital identities are no longer limited to only local feelings of belonging, but are shaped by complex social contextual relationships with multiple cultures. The chapter examines what it may mean when young people find it increasingly easy to connect with like-minded peers and seek positive reinforcements of their views and actions on the topics of their daily life. In this contribution, we illustrate our thinking by presenting vignettes from two projects where young people reflected on their encounters with fake news, and how they manage information they receive online in general. The vignettes are analysed first by foregrounding material actors through actor–network theory, then overlaid with a cultural-historical activity theory framework so we can hone in on socio-material details and what this means for education in postdigital times.

Keywords

  • Postdigital
  • Digital competences
  • Fake news
  • Echo chamber
  • Filter bubble
  • Digital identity
  • Information literacy

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Graz, Graz, Austria

    Kathrin Otrel-Cass & Michael Fasching

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  1. Kathrin Otrel-Cass
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  2. Michael Fasching
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Correspondence to Kathrin Otrel-Cass .

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  1. School of Education, University of Worcester, Worcester, UK

    Prof. Maggi Savin-Baden

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Otrel-Cass, K., Fasching, M. (2021). Postdigital Truths: Educational Reflections on Fake News and Digital Identities. In: Savin-Baden, M. (eds) Postdigital Humans. Postdigital Science and Education . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65592-1_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65592-1_6

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