Building a Fact-Based Reality: Understanding Fake
News
Ellen Birkett Morris
From completely fabricated stories to misunderstood
satire, stories that look like news can be completely false. But fake news has
real consequences. It can sway elections, ruin reputations and cause violence
as it did when a man fired a rifle in a Washington, D.C.
pizza restaurant.
How do you make sense of information in an
environment where the president labels real news as “fake news” and Russian
hackers and conspiracy theorists spread fake news on the internet that is designed to look
real?
Pay Attention to the Domain and URL
Established news organizations usually own their
domains and they have a standard look that you are probably familiar with.
Sites with such endings like ".com.co" should make you raise your eyebrows and
tip you off that you need to dig around more to see if they can be trusted.
This is true even when the site looks professional and has semi-recognizable
logos. For example, abcnews.com is
a legitimate news source, but abcnews.com.co is not despite its similar appearance.
Read the "About Us" Section
Most sites will have a lot of information about the
news outlet, the company that runs it, members of leadership, and the mission
and ethics statement behind an organization. The language used here is
straightforward. If it's melodramatic and seems overblown, you should be
skeptical. Also, you should be able to find out more information about the organization's
leaders in places other than that site.
Look at the Quotes in a Story
Or rather, look at the lack of quotes. Most
publications have multiple sources in each story who are professionals and have
expertise in the fields they talk about. If it's a serious or controversial
issue, there are more likely to be quotes — and lots of them. Look for
professors or other academics who can speak to the research they've done. And
if they are talking about research, look up those studies.
Look at Who Said Them
Then see who said the quotes and what they said.
Are they a reputable source with a title that you can verify through a quick
Google search? Say you're looking at a story and it says President Obama said
he wanted to take everyone's guns away. And then there's a quote. Obama is an
official who has almost everything he says recorded and archived. There are
transcripts for pretty much any address or speech he has given. Google those
quotes. See what the speech was about, who he was addressing and when it happened.
Even if he did an exclusive interview with a publication, that same quote will
be referenced in other stories, saying he said it while talking to the original
publication.
Check the Comments
A lot of these fake and misleading stories are
shared on social media platforms. Headlines are meant to get the reader's
attention, but they're also supposed to accurately reflect what the story is
about. Lately that hasn't been the case. Headlines often will be written in
exaggerated language with the intention of being misleading, and then attached
to stories that are about a completely different topic or just not true. These
stories usually generate a lot of comments on Facebook or Twitter. If a lot of
these comments call out the article for being fake or misleading, it probably
is.
Reverse Image Search
A picture should be accurate in illustrating what
the story is about. This often doesn't happen. If people who write these fake
news stories don't even leave their homes or interview anyone for the stories,
it's unlikely they take their own pictures. Do a little detective work and
reverse search for the image on Google. You can do this by right-clicking on
the image and choosing to search Google for it. If the image is appearing on a
lot of stories about many different topics, there's a good chance it's not
actually an image of what it says it was on the first story.
These tips are just a start at determining what type
of news an article is. Zimdars outlined these and others in
a guide for her students. If you take these steps, you're helping yourself and
you're helping others by not increasing the circulation of these stories.
And you won't be the only one trying to stop the
spread of this false content. The company leaders behind the platforms these
stories are shared on are trying to figure out how to fix the issue from their
side, but they are also trying to make sure not to limit anyone's right to
freedom of speech. It's a tricky position to be in, but they've said they'll
try.
In the end, it really does depend on taking responsibility and being an
engaged consumer of news.
Satire Sites
Here's one last thing. Satirical publications exist
and serve a purpose, but are clearly labeled as exaggerated and humorous by the
writers and owners. Some of the more well-known ones like The Onion and ClickHole use
satire to talk about current events. If people don't understand that, they
might take them seriously and then share these articles after reading them. If this happens or if you see your friends sharing
blatantly fake news, be a friend and kindly tell them it's not real. Don't shy
away from these conversations even if they might be uncomfortable. As I said earlier,
everyone has to help fix the fake news problem.
Here is another resource for finding fake news:
If you want to take it step further try this game
that helps sort out the real from the fake:
Help take back our democracy and become an activist
for the truth.
