![\"\"](\"http:\/\/metroactive.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/fake.jpg\")
<\/a>ILLUSTRATION: VIGG<\/p>\nA few months ago, no one had ever heard the term fake news, but after BuzzFeed News exposed a string of websites dedicated to producing untrue stories related to the U.S. presidential election \u2013 mostly aimed at hurting Hillary Clinton\u2019s chances of winning \u2013 that term has popped up everywhere. So too have many false stories purporting to be real.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re now getting our information from our friends, who may not be able to discern what\u2019s real and what\u2019s not. And if we get duped into believing a fake news story, we may end up disseminating this false information ourselves.<\/p>\n
While this may seem like a trivial issue, it\u2019s not. With hundreds of millions of articles getting shared on social media sites every year, we\u2019re now getting our information from our friends, who may not be able to discern what\u2019s real and what\u2019s not. And if we get duped into believing a fake news story, we may end up disseminating this false information ourselves.<\/p>\n
So how can you tell what\u2019s real and what\u2019s not? First of all, it\u2019s important to know what fake news is. It could consist of made-up stories that are published on sites created purely to make money, such as these sites created by teenagers in the Balkans, or sites made to seem like neutral news organizations, but which have a state-sponsored agenda.<\/p>\n
Fake news could come from a hyperpartisan site, either left- or right-wing, that is designed to evoke outrage<\/a>, scaremonger and make money, but has little to no factual basis, or twists the truth. It could also be a meme made with good intentions that transmits factual errors, or a meme meant to intentionally mislead<\/a> you for political reasons.<\/p>\n Most established media organizations, like The New York Times<\/em>, CNN or The Globe and Mail<\/em>, are reliable \u00ad\u00adand do not intentionally spread misinformation \u2013 though they are not fault- or bias-free, nor are they immune to being fooled.<\/p>\n We want to be careful about our news consumption, but we all make mistakes. Here\u2019s how you can spot fakes and be a critical reader.<\/p>\n You can\u2019t always tell from looks alone that a site peddles fake news, explains Iana Georgieva, a librarian with the Toronto Public Library who has been trained to evaluate information sources.<\/p>\n Many sites look as professional as established news outlets. \u201cEven very partisan organizations and propaganda groups can develop very sophisticated websites,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n That means that if it\u2019s a site you haven\u2019t seen before, you\u2019ll have to investigate. Do a Google search on the author of the piece to see where they\u2019ve been previously published. See who or what is behind the site \u2013 is it a real organization? Georgieva says to ask yourself questions like \u201cWhat\u2019s the context? Is it just somebody\u2019s opinion? Is this well-researched, investigative journalism with sources and diversity of opinion?\u201d<\/p>\n Vancouver-based author and media fluency expert Lee Watanabe Crockett agrees. He says to look at how the story is written. \u201cThere\u2019s a strong difference between opinion and fact,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I always encourage readers to look very, very clearly at the language that\u2019s being used. It\u2019s one thing to have an opinion and state it as an opinion. It\u2019s another thing to state it as a fact.\u201d<\/p>\n One thing to watch out for is whether something fits too neatly into your world view, or provokes outrage for outrage\u2019s sake. Information that creates an emotional response shouldn\u2019t be written off, but if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. To counter this, Georgieva recommends reading widely and talking to a variety of people to get diverse viewpoints \u2013 this will help you suss out fake \u201cfacts.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s also important to ask yourself what you know to be true, explains Crockett, who also teaches media literacy. He asks his students to think about things they have read and then think about how they know that true is true. Pausing to think critically will give you distance from the news so you don\u2019t automatically accept it as fact, react and share it on social media.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a glimmer of hope in that Facebook, which has been criticized for enabling the spreading of fake news, has taken steps to help users spot and stop misinformation. The social media company recently rolled out a feature for some users that allows them to mark a story as fake. The story may then be fact-checked by a third-party organization that has committed to following the International Fact-Checking Network\u2019s code of principles<\/a>. If they find the article fits in the \u201cfake news\u201d category, it\u2019s labelled with a \u201cdisputed\u201d tag when it\u2019s shared.<\/p>\n Still, as much fun as sharing stories may be, everyone needs to think carefully about how critical we\u2019re being when we evaluate a story\u2019s veracity. \u201dThe crisis with news literacy that we\u2019ve been experiencing lately is profound, but it\u2019s also catalyzing because it\u2019s a wake-up call,\u201d says Georgieva. \u201cWe really have to go back to the basics.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By ALEX MLYNEK \/ April 2017 Before you click on a link with an enticing headline, ask yourself: Is this article real or not? ILLUSTRATION: VIGG A few months ago, no one had ever heard the term fake news, but after BuzzFeed News exposed a string of websites dedicated to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/metroactive.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/metroactive.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/metroactive.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metroactive.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metroactive.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/metroactive.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201777\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/metroactive.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metroactive.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metroactive.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Looks don\u2019t matter<\/h3>\n
Burst your bubble<\/h3>\n
Facebook to the rescue?<\/h3>\n