Skip to Main Content
Help Give Accounts

Fake News

How to identify and avoid fake news, deepfakes, misinformation, and disinformation

  • STOP - Do you know and trust the source? If not, investigate.
     
  • INVESTIGATE THE SOURCE - See what others say. Here is a sample search: [URL] -site:[URL]. For example, acpeds.org -site:acpeds.org. This search takes the site out of your results list and lets you read what others have to say about it--this technique is called "lateral reading." 
     
  • FIND TRUSTED COVERAGE - See if established news sources or fact-checking sites, like Snopes or PolitiFact, verify what you read.
     
  • TRACE TO THE ORIGINAL - Go deeper by tracing quotes or videos back to their source. For photos, use the TinEye Reverse Image Search.

 

 

Caulfield, M. (2019, June 19). SIFT (The four moves). Hapgood. https://hapgood.us/2019/06/19/sift-the-four-moves/

What's Wrong with Fake News?

Why should you care about whether or not your news is real or fake?

  1. You deserve the truth.  You are smart enough to make up your own mind - as long as you have the real facts in front of you.  You have every right to be insulted when you read fake news, because you are in essence being treated like an idiot.
  2. Fake news destroys your credibility.  If your arguments are built on bad information, it will be much more difficult for people to believe you in the future.
  3. Fake news can hurt you, and a lot of other people.  Purveyors of fake and misleading medical advice like Mercola.com and NaturalNews.com help perpetuate myths like HIV and AIDS aren't related, or that vaccines cause autism.  These sites are heavily visited and their lies are dangerous.
  4. Real news can benefit you.  If you want to buy stock in a company, you want to read accurate articles about that company so you can invest wisely.  If you are planning on voting in an election, you want to read as much good information on a candidate so you can vote for the person who best represents your ideas and beliefs.  Fake news will not help you make money or make the world a better place, but real news can.