3452

Kjellrun Hiis Hauge, Suela Kacerja and Inger Elin Lilland

philosophy of mathematics education

2019

35

fake news , xenophobia , media , post-truth , critical mathematics education

The phenomenon of post-truth and fake news has given rise to concerns about the development of deliberative democracies. There is a fear that manipulation of people’s sentiments and fabricated facts will steer politics and decision-making. Political argumentation and decision-making are often supported by quantified information. Quantities, in form of fabricated or twisted numbers, may be applied to make fake news more trustworthy. In this paper, we analyse a YouTube video which conveys a claim that Muslims will dominate Europe and the world in near future. We scrutinise the validity of numbers and claims presented in the video together with the role of the presented numbers in conveying a political message. Other sources of information are also explored. We further show how concepts from critical mathematics education can be useful when preparing teaching and learning related to fake news.