On October 28th, 2021 Anchorage Daily News reporter Morgan Krakow learned that an article she was credited as writing was circulating Twitter. Except she didn’t actually write it. It wasn’t a real story. 

The tweet, which had thousands of likes and retweets, used an image that looked convincingly like the ADN website and had Krakow’s byline.

The headline read “Virginia man arrested for having Minecraft worlds that were the exact replicas of classified US military bases.”

ATMI senior producer Quinn White spoke to Krakow about getting caught up in this fake news story, how seemingly innocuous misinformation can contribute to more harmful spreading of lies, and how the pandemic has altered her career as a journalist.

Hosted by Yule Zhang.

Music by Kendrick Whiteman.

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Alaska Teen Media Institute is based in Anchorage, Alaska. We would like to acknowledge the Dena’ina people, whose land we work on.

Many thanks to the supporters of this podcast, including the Alaska Humanities Forum, United Way and the University of Alaska Anchorage Department of Journalism and Public Communications.