Matemática e fake news: reflexões da educação matemática sobre consumo de notícias

Abstract

Mathematics is traditionally presented as a knowledge that is not accessible, strictly logical, rational and neutral, and its political implications in the school and social sphere are constantly neglected. In a post-truth period, in which objective facts influence public opinion less than emotional appeals, disinformation propagating groups, usually with economic and political interests, try to manipulate public opinion and delegitimize already exhausted scientific knowledge. Too often these movements propagate conspiracy theories intrinsically related to quantitative issues and these actions can directly impact the proper functioning of democratic institutions. In this context, we elaborated our research question: how can Mathematics Education contribute to Media Education in a post-truth era? To answer this question, we delimited as a general objective to analyze the main fake news that was widely disseminated on social networks between the years 2016 and 2021. The choice of this period was to understand the election of US President Donald Trump, the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union and the period of the pandemic of SARS-CoV-2. Because it is configured as a documentary research with a qualitative approach, we use the Le Goff's theory (2003) to analyze these intentionally fabricated documents with the explicit objective of manipulating public opinion. We use Google Trends to locate the biggest search trends for the term Fake News on the internet and identify them with the help of major national fact-checking platforms, also known as fact-checking. As a result, we have developed a series of activities that aims to allow, with a look of critical and media mathematical education, to contribute to a critical reading of the news. Finally, when developing such analyses, it was intended to provide reflections on democracy and the non-neutrality of science, especially mathematics, and its intrinsic relationship with the interests of organized groups in the propagation of disinformation. From this research it was possible to reflect that: mathematics is not good, is not bad and much less neutral and, when worked with a critical eye, has the potential to be an instrument for promoting democracy and citizen formation.