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Although something is on the Internet, it does not make it true. Companies like Google and Facebook have had to remove false news sites, and many people have shared stories that are clearly untrue, like claims that Donald Trump is a secret lizard person or that Hillary Clinton is an android. However, being able to differentiate between real and fake news is easily achievable if one knows how.
In creating this new media literacy guide, two communications experts were consulted: Dr. Melissa Zimdars, an associate professor at Merrimack College whose list of untrustworthy news sites has become popular, and Alexios Mantzarlis, leader of the International Fact-Checking Network at the Poynter Institute.
There are different types of misleading or incorrect news: fake news, which often comes from known sham sites designed to resemble genuine ones; misleading news, which can be difficult to expose as they contain an aspect of truth taken out of context; highly partisan news, a kind of misleading news where the facts are bent to suit an agenda; clickbait, which uses shocking or appealing headlines to make you click the story; and satire, which can be misunderstood as actual news if people are unfamiliar with the satirical website.
The article suggests that one way of combating the spread of incorrect news is to think before sharing or re-tweeting content based solely on the headline. Zimdars believes that media literacy should be taught from a young age, as spending a lot of time online does not necessarily make one savvy to spotting fake content.
The article goes on to provide advice on how to spot fake news, such as checking if the site’s suffix is strange, like “.co” or “.su,” as that may mean the site is fake and hosted by third-party platforms such as WordPress. The article also suggests checking if the story’s headline matches the article’s information, as people often only read headlines without clicking through.
Further tricks for spotting fake news are to confirm whether the story shows a photograph or video that has been taken out of context, whether it cites primary sources, whether it features traceable quotes, and whether it just confirms your existing beliefs.
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