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How to Spot Fake News - A Helpful Primer on Being Informed and Avoiding False Claims


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Since we've had an influx of posters off and on over the last year or so who seem to routinely offer dubious sources and claims as well as dismiss others that don't fit their perspective, I thought this might be a helpful thread. We hear a lot of calls about Fake News these days. There's a lot of it! Some like our president think Fake News is the bias of mainstream media. Others think fake news is more conspiracy theory pushing sites akin to a digital version of celebrity tabloids. Some things blur the line, BUT there are a number of steps that are fairly easy to take that can help you diagnose a decent degree of credibility to a source before trusting its info. Here we go:

 

Tip #1 - Read Past the Headline

Headlines are designed to capture your attention. A lot of times they are even intentionally misleading to get your attention, but then the article doesn't match what the headline actually says. Headlines about scientific studies are particularly prone to this. No, that new study didn't actually say that eating a bar of chocolate everyday will make you lose weight; that caught your attention, but what it actually said was more complicated and not so clear, so read past the article.

 

Tip #2 - Check the Date

Most fake news articles either don't have a date/time that they were posted, or are old stories that have been recycled years later. Especially if you see something linked from somebody on social media, make sure its a current story and if it doesn't have a date, its likely not reliable. Further, if someone links you to an article from 2015 to support an assertion that Donald Trump convinced Ford to make more American jobs, you obviously know that's not evidence of that claim because Trump wasn't anywhere close to the white house at that time. Knowing the date is important.

 

Tip #3 - Who's the Author

Similar to dates, most fake news articles don't list an author. Sometimes they even list an author who isn't real, or an author who they've "stolen" the identity of to make a lie more convincing. Make sure the article has an author, and if anything about the site seems fishy do a google search for their name.

 

Tip #4 - The Difference Between Reporting and Editorials

Legitimate news sites and organizations still have opinion pieces or editorials. Make sure you know if your source is an opinion of a person or reporting on facts and sources. The easiest way to tell if something is editorial should be a disclaimer header somewhere that it's in the opinion section of the site, or that it's an opinion piece. But sometimes it's harder to tell than that. The second best way is to look for qualitative/evaluative statements within the article. An article that says something along the lines of, "Donald Trump is a bad, racist man" is not real news. That is an opinion. An article that quotes a source saying that, however, is different. 

 

Tip #5 - What's the Perspective of the Organization?

Some organizations provide real news but are honest about their perspective. Christian news organizations, for instance, can still report on the news, but be mindful that they are probably subtly and either consciously or unconsciously supporting a conservative Christian worldview. Check if the site has an about us page, or if they're labeled with a certain lean on wikipedia. To go along with tip 4, be mindful of sources who admit where they're coming from and then offer unsubstantiating commentary in their stories. I saw a piece of "journalism" from a Christian blog recently that said things along the lines of, "In his most recent videos, Jennings shows clear anger toward God". That's not news. There is no verification of the person referenced showing clear anger. Nobody was quoted as saying that. That's just the author's opinion.

 

Tip #6 - Any Supporting Sources?

Good and real news builds off sources. Sometimes they're anonymous, but other times they're readily available. Real news articles name (naming an anonymous source is still naming a source and explaining the nature of it) and link the sources they cite. For example, Donald Trump routinely retweets and cites articles that make certain claims about crime/jobs/etc. but do not source the claims. Those usually are not real claims. When you see a claim, if it's not linked, ask yourself why and see if the actual source exists.

 

Tip #7 - Cross Reference

Don't rely on one source. Verify an article by making sure other people are also reporting on the same thing. That can be tricky because a lot of fake news sites cycle each others' bogus stories often, but if you use the other tips as well you can figure out whether something is real or fake easily by cross referencing.

 

Tip #8 - Formatting

Real news does not use caps lock, dramatic punctuation, and very rarely contains spelling errors.

 

Tip #9 - Check Your Bias

This one is tough, but simple. If a news story immediately makes you react with a thought of, "Oh my god I knew it" or otherwise confirms your suspicions or trust of something right away, especially if it's an outrageous headline or premise, then there's at least a decent chance you're not looking at it rationally but you're engaging in confirmation bias. 

 

 

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