How to spot fake news stories
Mom was insistent that a remake of Forrest Gump was going to be filmed in our small town. She even knew that Channel 18 reported it.
There’s no local news outlet called Channel 18 News in southeast Texas. But many of my hometown friends, too, were sharing the article on Facebook.
It was false, yet the article still lives online and may make yet another round on the Internet.
The false news epidemic is getting a lot of attention, especially after the U.S. presidential election in which many false or misleading articles led Facebook’s trending list. It is worrisome in an age in which six out of 10 Americans use social media platforms to consume news, according to a study by the Pew Research Center.
On Monday, Google and Facebook announced plans to combat the problem through restrictions on advertising.
But some are taking the matter of media literacy into their own hands.
Melissa Zimdars, assistant professor of media studies at Merrimack College in Massachusetts, has created a list called “False, Misleading, Clickbait-y and Satirical News Sources.”
Zimdars’ list helps break down the red flags. Here are her tips: • Avoid websites that end in “lo” (for example, Newslo). These sites specialize in taking a piece of accurate information and packaging that information with other false or misleading “facts.” • Watch out for websites that end in “.com.co” — they are often fake versions of real news sources. • Watch out if known/reputable news sites are not reporting on the story. There should typically be more than one source reporting on a topic or event. • Odd domain names generally equal odd and rarely truthful news. • Lack of author attribution may, but not always, signify that the news story is suspect and requires verification. • Some news organizations let bloggers post under the banner of particular news brands. However, many of these posts do not go through the same editing process (for example: BuzzFeed Community Posts, Kinja blogs, Forbes blogs). • Check the “about us” tab on websites or look up the website on Snopes or Wikipedia for more information about the source. • Bad web design and use of all capital letters can be a sign that the source you’re looking at should be verified and/or read in conjunction with other sources. • If a story makes you angry, it’s probably a good idea to keep reading about the topic via other sources to make sure the story you read wasn’t purposefully trying to make you angry (with potentially misleading or false information) in order to generate shares and ad revenue. • It’s best to read several sources of information to get a variety of viewpoints. Some sources vacillate between providing legitimate, problematic and/or hyperbolic news coverage, requiring readers and viewers to verify information with other sources.