<div dir="ltr"><div>We continue our discussion of the art of Fake News and art and Fake News (etc.) with a somewhat unusual course.<br></div><div><br></div><div>At the start of 2017, launching on Inauguration Day, Talan Memmott and I offered a course through UnderAcademy College entitled, How to Write and Read Fake News: Journullism in the Age of Trump. UnderAcademy College is a non-degree granting un-institution founded on the model of Black Mountain College.</div><div><br></div><div>The course offered to teach how to write Fake News (is my capitalization of that bugging anyone else but me?), although we may not have entirely been in bed with the devil. Or if we were in bed with the devil, we were doing an awful lot of faking it. And, consequently, were quite unsatisfied with his performance but had forfeited our right to blame other people for the bed we had made. So you know, basically feeling like most of America. You can see the sillybus here:</div><div><a href="https://medium.com/the-fake-news-reader/the-fake-news-course-sillybus-d68953d6abf5">https://medium.com/the-fake-news-reader/the-fake-news-course-sillybus-d68953d6abf5</a></div><div><br></div><div>All of the materials for this class are freely available online for your own adaptation and perversion. And I should mention that this course, like all UnderAcademy College courses, is free and that I (still) have not been paid for teaching said course.</div><div><br></div><div>Our first lesson was: How to Fake News, which you can see here.</div><div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex8Zi15UTJo">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex8Zi15UTJo</a></div><div><br></div><div>In that lesson, we introduced our (patent-pending) 80-20-10 method for writing Fake News. Now, none of our 100-or-so students, real and fake, have reported back on whether or not this lesson led to them making mad money from their Fake News writing, but most accounts suggest that in spite of (or actually because of) a growing awareness of the scourge of Fake News, there's big money to be had.</div><div><br></div><div>And in the age of Trump, what more evidence of a successful educational operation could their be than loads of money -- or at least lawsuits?</div><div><br></div><div>How do you feel about teaching people to write Fake News as a response to Fake News? Does that sound sophomoric or are you just being uptight? We realize those aren't the only two options, so we have an open essay response we're also accepting but probably won't count towards your grade. <br></div><div><br></div><div>Love,</div><div>Mark</div>
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