Detecting fake news

Just because you read it on Facebook, on somebody’s blog or in a text from a friend, doesn’t mean it’s true.

There are a variety of ways you can determine whether news is real or fake, including:

• Read beyond the headlines. Google the exact headline. Investigate the validity of the headline and its story.

• Read multiple news sources to see how (or if) they are reporting on the same story.

• Investigate the author or journalist. Do a Google search to authenticate the author or journalist.

• Scrutinise news sources. Look for

experts with different perspectives.

• Check the date. Some false stories aren’t completely fake, but rather distortions of real events. • Look for unusual URLs that can appear

real or close to a legitimate news source, but aren’t. Those ending in unusual domains such as “.com.co” are fake news.

• Consult the experts. For international news use fact-checking websites such as Snopes.com, FactCheck.org, The Washington Post Fact Checker and PolitiFact.com.

• Consider your own “confirmation bias”

(Confirmation bias leads people to trust information that confirms their beliefs and ignores information that doesn’t).

• Assess whether the news article is a joke.

The internet hosts hundreds of satirical news sites.

• False news stories often contain

manipulated images or videos. Upload a suspicious photo into a search on Google Images. Verify the subject of the photo and where it has appeared online. Also use TinEye Reverse Image Search (www. tineye.com) to verify images you see online.