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Fake News and How to Recognize It - Longview

This subject guide discusses fake news, fact checking, and other topics related to information literacy.

Steps for Verifying

This graphic comes from Pace University's Fake News vs. Real News LibGuide at https://libguides.pace.edu/c.php?g=595861&p=4122466

Video: Spotting Bogus Claims

The video above was created by FactCheck.org the political literacy project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, which is a sister site to FactCheck.org. 

How To Recognize A Fake News Story: 9 Helpful Tips to Stop Yourself from Sharing False Information

Nick Robins-Early, World News Reporter for The Huffington Post, wrote this 22 November 2016 article that identifies nine steps that readers can use to identify fake news stories.

The Huffington Post on How to Recognize a Fake News Story https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fake-news-guide-facebook_n_5831c6aae4b058ce7aaba169

Tips for Analyzing News Sources

  • Avoid websites that end in “lo” ex: Newslo. These sites take pieces of accurate information and then packaging that information with other false or misleading “facts” (sometimes for the purposes of satire or comedy).

  • Watch out for websites that end in “.com.co” as they are often fake versions of real news sources  

  • Watch out if known/reputable news sites are not also reporting on the story. Sometimes lack of coverage is the result of corporate media bias and other factors, but there should typically be more than one source reporting on a topic or event.

  • Odd domain names generally equal odd and rarely truthful news.

  • Lack of author attribution may, but not always, signify that the news story is suspect and requires verification.

  • Some news organizations are also letting bloggers post under the banner of particular news brands; however, many of these posts do not go through the same editing process (ex: BuzzFeed Community Posts, Kinja blogs, Forbes blogs).

  • Check the “About Us” tab on websites or look up the website on Snopes or Wikipedia for more information about the source.

  • Bad web design and use of ALL CAPS can also be a sign that the source you’re looking at should be verified and/or read in conjunction with other sources.

  • If the story makes you REALLY ANGRY it’s probably a good idea to keep reading about the topic via other sources to make sure the story you read wasn’t purposefully trying to make you angry (with potentially misleading or false information) in order to generate shares and ad revenue.

  • If the website you’re reading encourages you to DOX individuals, it’s unlikely to be a legitimate source of news.

  • It’s always best to read multiple sources of information to get a variety of viewpoints and media frames. Some sources not yet included in this list (although their practices at times may qualify them for addition), such as The Daily Kos, The Huffington Post, and Fox News, vacillate between providing important, legitimate, problematic, and/or hyperbolic news coverage, requiring readers and viewers to verify and contextualize information with other sources.

  • For more tips on analyzing the credibility and reliability of sources, please check out School Library Journal (they also provide an extensive list of media literacy resources) and the Digital Resource Center.

© 2016  by Melissa Zimdars.

The work 'False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and Satirical “News” Sources'

is made  available  under a  Creative Commons

Attribution 4.0  International  License. To  view  a copy of  this license, visit

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

 

These tips are from Melissa Zimdars, Assistant Professor of Media Studies at Merrimack College (North Andover, Massachusetts). Her article has been featured on the Web sites of academic libraries, including the Fake News and How to Recognize it LibGuide at the Digital Library of Stark State College (North Canton, Ohio) and the Fake or Fact?: Fake News and Fact Checking LibGuide at Bowdoin College (Brunswick, Maine). Zimdars reflects on the viral spread of her article in this 18 November 2016 in The Washington Post. 

Verification Tools: Fact Checkers and Reverse Image Searches

There are a variety of verification tools available online. Fact checker services such as Snopes, PolitiFact, and PunditFact investigate claims, and assign truth ratings to them. Reverse image searches, on sites such as Google Images and TinEye, help users find the original source and location of images, which is helpful if images have been manipulated.