Did you hear that taurine can reverse the effects of tinnitus? Or that a man named Tom Ogle invented a carburetor that runs entirely on fuel vapors? Maybe you did, but hopefully you didn’t believe those stories – because they’re not true.
Fake news is legion these days. According to Merrimack College professor Melissa Zimdars, fake news comes in one of four categories:
1 – Completely false news, with no factual basis
2 – News that is misleading or inaccurate
3 – News stories with attention grabbing headlines that may not have anything to do with their article’s content
4 – Satirical sites, whose content is meant to invoke humor
Source: False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and/or Satirical “News” Sources by Melissa “Mish” Zimdars, Assistant Professor of Communication, Merrimack College (Google docs)