A lot of things have changed over the years: education, technology, entertainment, media – that much is true. But if there’s one thing that’s remained as sinister and as insidious as ever, it’s fake news. People have been proliferating fake news and misinformation since we’ve discovered how to translate our thoughts into oral and written word, but never has it been easier to spread fake news and misinformation than it is now. Thanks to social media and internet culture in general, people will believe anything as long as it looks like the information is from a reputable source – a professional-looking font here, a stock image there, maybe even a random quote or two – and that’s exactly why fake news is so harmful.
It gets mixed in the overwhelming slurry of accurate news threads, links to credible articles produced by well-established publications, and professional research findings that an untrained fake news-spotting eye would definitely miss and pass off as real. What’s more is that fake news is reposted by high-profile media personalities – garnering even more attention and interest from the online community – and worse, sometimes it actually comes from the important political figures and organizations themselves. No wonder people think all of this is real!
And no wonder fake news and misinformation is known to spurn many people into aggressive, discriminative and ignorant action.
That is why it’s absolutely crucial that we know how to identify fake news so that we may end the vicious cycle of misinformation and ignorance. And the only way to do that is to start with ourselves and with the way we analyze and discern information.
With that, here are five things to look out for when determining whether or not something is fake news:
- Find the source. Look for the publisher of every story you come across and do a quick Google search. Is this publisher affiliated with a professional and established news source or agency? Are they linked to any organization, company or corporation? Or are they simply small-time bloggers sharing their ideas on their personal pages? Depending on the content of the story, the publisher’s background will give you a good idea of how credible the story is.
- Check the platform. Does the URL of the webpage you’re looking at look a little funny to you? A professional website’s URL would contain no spelling or grammatical errors whatsoever, and would end in “.com” or “.com.ph.” depending on where the publication is based. If the URL you’re looking at is just a string of random letters or words, or contains enough spelling and grammar errors to make your old English teacher cry, it’s most probably fake.
- Pay close attention to the headline and the content. Is the headline out-of-this-world shocking and punctuated excessively like this?!?!?!?! Does the actual story sound sensationalized and dramatized? (Almost like you’re reading a gripping novel rather than a factual and informative article backed by research.) If so, chances are, the article you’re reading is fake. Remember, reputable news sources would always have high overall standards – from grammar and tone to every little period and exclamation mark.
- Verify the information. Visit several credible news sources and do a quick cross-check: are they all reporting the same story you’ve just read? If you can’t seem to find the news bite anywhere else but on the site or page you found it in, you might want to question its accuracy and credibility.
- Re-examine your biases. People will tend to believe in what they already believe to be true. Whether we’re aware of it or not, our personal biases play a huge role in how we analyze and discern the information we receive online. If a person or organization we look up to and idolize reposts certain news article or update, we tend to believe that the information being shared is true – even if it might not be. Likewise, if a person or organization we aren’t so familiar with or outright dislike reposts the same news article or update, we tend to believe the information isn’t accurate or credible! And this is how we inadvertently dupe ourselves into thinking something is fake or real.