This guide will help you distinguish real news from fake. According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, many Americans believe fake news stories cause significant harm to the nation. Another study by Stanford University concluded that high school students can't always tell fake news from real news. Fake news stories are also frequently shared on social media.
What is fake news?
There are four broad categories of fake news, according to media professor Melissa Zimdars of Merrimack College.
CATEGORY ONE: Fake, false, or regularly misleading websites that are shared on Facebook and social media. Some of these websites may rely on outrage by using distorted headlines and decontextualized or dubious information in order to generate likes, shares and profits on social media.
CATEGORY TWO: Websites that may circulate misleading and/or potentially unreliable information.
CATEGORY THREE: Websites which sometimes use clickbait-y headlines and social media descriptions.
CATEGORY FOUR: Satire/comedy sites, which can offer important critical commentary on politics and society, but have the potential to be shared as actual/literal news.
No single topic falls under a single category. For example, false or misleading medical news may be entirely fabricated (Category One), may intentionally misinterpret facts or misrepresent data (Category Two), may be accurate or partially accurate but use an alarmist title to get your attention (Category Three) or may be a critique on modern medical practice (Category Four). Some articles fall under more than one category. It is up to you to do the legwork to make sure your information is good.
Why should you care?
1: You deserve the truth. You are smart enough to make up your own mind - as long as you have the real facts in front of you. You have every right to be insulted when you read fake news, because you are in essence being treated like an idiot.
2: Fake news destroys your credibility. If your arguments are built on bad information, it will be much more difficult for people to believe you in the future.
3: Fake news can hurt you, and a lot of other people. Bogus data was used to link vaccines with autism, igniting an anti-vaccine campaign. A photo misidentifying the alleged perpetrator of the 2018 Parkland school shooting spread on social media and the internet, leading to a wave of online harassment directed at the individual in the photograph, who was not involved with the shooting. These sites are heavily visited and their lies are dangerous.
4: Real news can benefit you. If you want to buy stock in a company, you want to read accurate articles about that company so you can invest wisely. If you are planning on voting in an election, you want to read as much good information on a candidate so you can vote for the person who best represents your ideas and beliefs. Fake news will not help you make money or make the world a better place, but real news can.
Adapted from Fake News (Campus Library, Indiana University East), licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.