10 Ways to Spot a Fake News Article – EasyBib Blog

For many of us, 2016 is going down as a year to forget. Election upsets, Zika, the Syrian crisis, and unfortunately tons of fake news about all of the above and everything in between.

Denzel Washington was recently quoted as saying, If you dont read the newspaper, youre uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, youre misinformed. So what should you do? You want to be informed, but a good deal of the information out there is incorrect or biased. Here are some things to keep an eye out for when reading a news article.

Links and citations allow us to easily access, read, and explore more about the information found in the article. Authors include references and links to validate their story, so if an article is missing links and references, it is a huge red flag.

Many big name news sites, such as CNN, do not include links or citations, but other sites do. The articles that you read should look similar to this one from LiveScience.coms article, Why Do We Fall for Fake News? Check out the hyperlinks throughout the article. They help validate the information that the author wrote about.

An article without an authors name is another red flag. Most authors who put the time in to develop a well-researched news story like having their name attached to it. When an article is missing the name of the individual who wrote it, the reader isnt sure whether its a trusted journalist who wrote the article or an angry teenager. Only consider trusting articles with an authors name attached to it.

Do a Google search on the authors name to find their occupation and locate other articles that the author has composed. Is the author an expert in their field? Have they written other well-researched articles? Do a quick background check on the author to determine their credibility.

On the top or bottom of most websites, you should see a section titled About Us. This section should give you a brief run-down of the mission and goals of the site. Do they aspire to post trustworthy news? Do they have an authoritative team of journalists and writers? Or is it a website that allows the general public to post articles? Reading about the website that hosts the article can help you determine if they post trustworthy sources.

Authors tend to read and re-read their articles numerous times prior to posting. In addition, they often have others proofread their work. When spelling or grammatical errors are present, this shows that the author might have hastily posted the information or they may not be an authoritative expert in the content that theyre writing about.

Copy and paste a quote from the article into Googles search bar. Are you able to find that same quote on another website or did your search produce a quote that is a bit different than the one in the article? Writers sometimes modify quotes to change their meaning and to make their content persuade you into believing something that isnt 100% true.

Do a simple keyword search on Google for a similar article. If youre unable to find anything remotely similar, chances are that the author didnt do their research, made up much of the information in the article, or are fully sharing their opinion on a topic not factual news. Stick to trusting news articles that have similar pieces found on the Internet.

News articles are essentially meant to inform you by showing all sides of a topic; the good, the bad, and the ugly. If an article only features one viewpoint, the reader should remind themselves that theyre not seeing the full picture. Be cautious of news articles that only report one side of the story.

A headline can do more than provide a snippet of what the entire piece is about; it can also persuade us to believe something before we even read the article. Authors sometimes fabricate their headlines, knowing that you might walk away without reading the article and believing their claim. If the headline causes your eyes to pop out of your head, read the entire article first before deciding to trust the information or not.

If the story is unbelievable, chances are it is! Trust your gut instinct and check for many of items discussed in this article.

If you believe something is incorrect, simply do not share it with others. Sharing fake news articles pushes them higher up in search result pages, causing others to come across them quickly and believing the content.

Some sites, such as Facebook, allow you to flag posts that are harmful or inappropriate. If you believe that a news story is false, make sure to report it to the host so they can take it down if necessary.

We know, it takes time to double check the information in news articles, but be an informed citizen and find out if what youre reading and sharing is factual or not.

Richter, Greg. Denzel Washington: Media Should Tell the Truth, Stop BS Newsmax, 6 Dec.2016, http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/media-truth-Denzel-Washington-BS/2016/12/06/id/762575/.

Sundar, S. Shyam. Why Do We Fall for Fake News? LiveScience, Purch, 9 Dec. 2016,www.livescience.com/57151-why-we-fall-for-fake-news.html.

Konnikova, Maria. How Headlines Change the Way We Think. The New Yorker, Conde Nast, 17 Dec. 2014, http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/headlines-change-way-think.

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10 Ways to Spot a Fake News Article - EasyBib Blog