While social media can be a very powerful tool for connection and learning, it has recently come under fire for hindering both connection and learning through the phenomenon known as fake news. This phenomenon is quite simple: a website spews out either false information or opinions and sells it as verifiable news. This news is then shared through social media, often to prove or influence others' opinions on a given subject.
Recently, many have pointed fingers directly to social media outlets such as Facebook, asking them to fix the problem. Following several concerns that fake news may have affected the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, both Google and Facebook took measures to rid fake news sites from their browsers.
However, trying to weed out these fake news sites is only fixing one part of a complex problem. Yes, it is great that misleading sites will no longer be readily available to the public. However, it shouldn't be enough to shield the public from misinformation. After all, misinformation can take many forms, from websites to word of mouth to random YouTube videos. It's not good enough to start filtering what is readily available for users to share; we must also teach users how to filter for themselves, how to figure out what are reliable and trustworthy sources. Therefore, below I have listed a few tell-tale signs that perhaps you have happened upon some fake news.
1. You have never heard of the media outlet.
This may not work for all questionable media, but it is a start. If you find an article from more well-known media outlets like CNN or The New York Times, you can be pretty certain that it's true, and any mistakes will be fixed, or official corrections will be issued. For lesser known reliable resources, however, you might need to do a little more work just to verify that it's correct.
2. The article contains misspelled words.
This can be a pretty big sign, especially when the misspelled words are contained in the title of the article. Don't get me wrong, even the reliable news sites misspell a word every once in a while, but if there's a mistake in every other sentence, this article's probably not coming from the best source.
3. The article is highly opinionated.
This can go both ways. Many reliable sources write great editorials, or highly-opinionated pieces. However, use caution when trying to support claims or arguments with articles that are feeding you more opinions than they are facts.
4. The article doesn't provide much evidence.
This doesn't simply apply to fake news sources, but to life in general. If a story seems a little out there, ask for evidence, for quotes from others or statistics or video evidence or evidence from some other reliable source. The article you're reading needs to back up its story. If it doesn't, it's probably not reliable.
5. The evidence is incorrect.
Even if the article provides evidence, if the story does seem a little odd, or if you're about to base an argument off that article, make sure that the evidence is real. Look it up. Did that professor actually say what the article asserts that he said? Does that professor even exist? Do a little digging, just to make sure you're being fed the truth.
6. The story doesn't seem to pop up anywhere else on the web.
If an entire town in Texas is being quarantined for the Ebola virus, as it was reported on the National Report website, you better believe news sources will be all over that. It's an enticing story, and people need to know about the threat of such a virus...at least if the story is true, that is. If a story as surprising and important as this is only showing up on that one random site that you found, it's probably a made-up story to begin with.
If you take anything from this article, I highly encourage you to remember to take all of the information fed to you with a grain of salt. Even watch the big news organizations, the ones that we have deemed reliable. Even if the information is correct, is it written in a certain way that may be misleading? These are the questions you should be asking on an everyday basis. If we all learn to be active perceivers of the world around us, perhaps one day we will not only be able to see the world in a better light, but we will be able to perceive what needs to be changed, and change it for the better.
