Hate and Deception on the Web
What’s a School Library Media Specialist to Do?
Frances Jacobson Harris
What could be more upsetting than finding out that the site at URL <www.martinlutherking.org> is actually a hate site operated by white supremacists? How about finding a link to it posted by a middle school teacher who assumes the site is a valid source of information about King?
Each semester, I show this site to my eighth-grade computer literacy class. We only look at a few screens, enough for students to get the general idea. I want them to understand that ".org" is not a guarantee of legitimacy. But the real punchline of the lesson comes when I show the students sites that link to martinlutherking.org without realizing its true nature. These well-intentioned linkers are K–12 teachers, college students, television stations commemorating the King holiday, support groups for persons of color, and tourist site operators. Their failure to assess this Web site makes a deep impression on my students, much more than my lectures on the importance of Web site evaluation. They never look at Web information in quite the same way again.
How do I find these linking sites? Many search engines allow link checks by typing "link:" in the search box followed by the URL (for example, link:martinlutherking.org). The majority of links to <www.martinlutherking.org> are from librarians and educators who are teaching Web site evaluation skills. A minority of the linking sites are like-minded hate sites. The third category includes well-meaning individuals who do not understand what they are linking to.
After my class presentation, I send out a boilerplate e-mail message to the latter group suggesting that they reexamine the site. Most remove the link. But by the time the next semester rolls around, I find a whole new batch of unsuspecting linkers. Unfortunately, it looks as though I will have fresh examples for my lesson for the foreseeable future.
We have a responsibility to prepare our students for exposure to such misinformation. However, first we must educate ourselves by becoming familiar with the extent and tactics of such extremist groups. The Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Hate on the World Wide Web page <www.adl.org/special_reports/hate_on_www/hate_on_www.asp> provides a succinct yet powerful overview of how hate has permeated the Web. The main ADL site <www.adl.org> contains other useful resources, such as a hate symbols database.
Another Web site, Tolerance.org, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, also has a guide to hate on the Internet <www.tolerance.org/hate_internet>. It offers a guided explication of four hate sites, pointing out the ways in which propaganda and psychological manipulation are employed. Investigate sites such as the National Alliance or David Duke’s European-American Unity and Rights Organization in order to learn to identify the tactics used to disguise intentions and mislead viewers.
In the school setting, we can control the damage from online hate in two ways: by limiting access and by implementing educational interventions. Controlling access includes such options as using filtering software, developing Web access policies and procedures, and creating computer use agreements. Each of these has benefits as well as pitfalls. Filters may block a site such as <www.martinlutherking.org> but allow access to Arthur Butz’s notorious Holocaust revisionist site <http://pubweb.nwu.edu/~abutz/di/intro.html>, hosted on the Northwestern University domain. The acceptable use agreement that a student signed at the beginning of the year is forgotten when the student comes to the media center in February.
On the other hand, explicit teaching engages students in critical thinking about a topic that is generally avoided both at school and at home. We cannot guarantee that such directed efforts will effectively inoculate students against the influence of online hate. At my workshop you will learn how to teach analysis strategies that will help students become aware and beware of hate and prejudice on the Web.
Frances Jacobson Harris is a Librarian at University Laboratory High School, Urbana, Ill.
©2003 Frances Jacobson Harris
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