How do you trust that news isn't "fake" -- on Monday, Williamstown panel will offer answers

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Two libraries are sponsoring a public forum that will help members of the public to discern quality, trustworthy news from material that is based on rumors or lies.

” Fact or Fabrication in Today’s News,” is set for on Monday, March 27 at 7 p.m. at the Williamstown Youth Center. It is co-sponsored by the North Adams Public Library and the Milne Public Library in Williamstown.

"Intended as an educational rather than a partisan conversation, it will feature a panel of journalists, educators and a library advocate taking questions on how news is presented and consumed in modern culture and how that process affects our views as informed citizens and voters," says Pat MCLeod, director of the Milne library.

Panelists will touch on the state of media literacy; ways to improve it and the role schools and libraries can play in meeting that challenge. Audience participation is encouraged. State First Berkshire District Rep. Gail Cariddi,  (D-North Adams) will moderate.

Journalists on the panel are Tammy Daniels, managing editor of iBerkshires; Carrie Saldo, a Berkshire Eagle news reporter with a background in radio and television; and Martin Langeveld, former publisher of The Eagle and The Transcript, who currently comments on the future of media in his blog “News After Newspapers.”

Educators are Jennifer Browdy, associate professor of comparative literature at Simon’s Rock of Bard College, who is teaching a course on “Media Production and Consumption in the Age of Fake News and Alternative Facts”; Shawn McIntosh, a journalist who teaches English and Communications at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and is the primary adviser to The Beacon student newspaper; and Peter Niemeyer, history teacher at Mount Greylock Regional High School and adviser to the Mount Greylock Echo student newspaper.

Krista McLeod, director of the Nevins Memorial Library in Methuen and a member of the Massachusetts Library Association Intellectual Freedom Committee, will speak to the role of libraries. The session will be videotaped by WilliNet for later viewing on television Channel 17 and online at WilliNet.org.

For more information, contact McLeod at 413-458-5369 or pmcleod@williamstown.net;  or Mindy Hackner, librarian, North Adams Public Library, 413-662-3133 or mhackner@#cwmars.org.