Google, Facebook, and Twitter have set up a plugin that are working to block out all these fake news websites but we can't always trust them to get the work because that is a great load of work. There are thousands of these websites and it will take time to eradicate all of them.
 |
| Source: CNN |
Readers can also resist fake news by checking other trusted news sources if the article has been published by them. If it comes out that it was just the website that published the story, it is likely to be false and should not be trusted.
The photos in the articles might seem unrealistic or photo-shopped. In this case, drag and drop the photo into Google images and it will identify the source. Readers should be careful as writers can edit pictures to suit the article. The picture might be old but they can edit it to conform to a current situation.
Readers can install a Google extension to detect fake news. This will block all fake news sources from search results. It is very important that readers verify the sources of the information as well as the identity of the writer and the organization as a whole.
It is very necessary that readers verify news before they share on their social media pages like Facebook and Twitter. People believe the information you send across depending on your status. Save yourself by not spreading fake news.
When it comes to eradicating fake news, it is a gradual process but readers can save themselves by not heeding to any news they see on the web but acting towards only the true and verified news.
I like that you give some example of certain things you can do to avoid fake news like install a program for google. The question I would then ask is how dose this program decide what is fake and what is real? I don't think it would be to hard to believe that you could only be seeing the news they want you to see to make you think a certain way no matter if its fake or not. That might just be me thinking to much about it but I wouldn't say its not something to consider.
ReplyDeleteThose apps block all unverified sources so your search results are filtered. Even with that we can't rely on it 100% that is why there are other ways to go by it.
DeleteThanks Adelaide. I like the information you provided in your post. I didn't know anything about the Google Extension to detect fake news. I hope to try that and see how it works. I hope you can help me set it up, in case I encounter any problem with the installation. That might really help.
ReplyDeleteIt has been in the system not for long, I think four years or so. It was developed by some students at Princeton university.
DeleteWell, sure, readers can resist fake news if they follow your steps above. But this requires a due diligence to fact check that I don't think most people are willing to do. Maybe the reader trusts others who posted the news item; maybe it looked professional; maybe it fed into one's pre-disposed worldview? So the skill-set of checking for fake news isn't that much of a problem. But think about our recent article about Tweeting and staying within one's comfort zone. Who is willing to do the labor-intensive work of fact checking most of what they read?
ReplyDelete