Fake News is the means by which people make a living. Others also publish fake news in search of attention for themselves. According to Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., some people crave for attention through the publication of fake news. The fake news channel could range from the news on TV, the newspapers, magazines, Facebook, Instagram and so on. In order for readers to resist fake news, questions like, who wrote the article, what are the evidence that support the claims made in the article and also are there any other sources that can add to the claims made in the article? Parker Ward of Dallas County Community College District in an article "Fake News and How to Avoid it"says, one has to look at the source, check the wording of the headlines and also see if there are any major flaws.
Asking about who wrote an article establishes the credibility of the news provided. Once the author is known, the reader can then figure out if the news is true of fake. Credible authors will provide their credentials and also the sources of their research in the article and sometimes provide a link through which to contact them. The authenticity of the news can be confirmed if the credibility is established.
Evidence to support a claim made in an article should also be considered in trying to resist fake news. Any real news will have an evidence that would support the claims the writer made in the article. Supporting a claim with an evidence confirms to the reader the information in the article can be taken as real or whole truth. If there are no evidence that would support the claims, ten there is a red flag to that article.
Wynne Davis, a digital news intern of Public News Radio (NPR) says one should also look and consider the domain of the URL of the article. He said any authentic site owns their domain and it is easily identified. He went on further to say that any website with .com.co should be of a concern to the reader.
When these measures are put into play and used as guidelines by readers, there would less incidence of believing what are put there in the news that are totally far from the truth. One should not waste the time of reading these fake news if there are evidence to prove the news source. In keeping these strategies and others, which were not mentioned in this blog into consideration, making the real news from the fake wouldn't be far fetched.
I like that you explained ways to identify fake news, and linked articles which provide similar or the same evidence.
ReplyDeleteYour post does a good job of highlighting ways to avoid fake news.
These are all good points for "investigating" fake news. I wonder how many people who read on smartphones will go through the trouble? I think it's a critical thinking issue but also a technical one. Without a mouse or bigger viewing screen, readers tend to focus on body text and not URL. I wonder if there are any studies substantiating how deeply we read on smaller devices vs. desktop/laptop and then hard copy?
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