Fake News & Misinformation: How to Spot and Verify

Can you spot fake news?

This guide provides tips, fact checking websites, and resources to help you discern whether the news and other information you see, read, and hear about is real or fake. Become information literate and media literate to avoid being duped. Learn to be a critical consumer and producer of information. Critically evaluate information (e.g, distinguish fake news from real news). Be aware of ethical and unethical uses of information, including plagiarism.

Much of the discourse on ‘fake news’ conflates misinformation with disinformation. It is important to apply critical thinking skills to distinguish messages that are true from those that are false, and messages that are created, produced or distributed by “agents” who intend to do harm from those that are not:

Dis-information: false information deliberately and often covertly spread (as by the planting of rumors) in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth.

Mis-information: incorrect or misleading information; not necessarily spread deliberately or intended to influence opinion

Fake news is “any news that contains intentionally misleading information.” When you see a “news” story, you need to dig a lot deeper than the headline or the text of the article to know whether what you are seeing is fact rather than speculation, opinion, or outright fiction.

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."  - Aldous Huxley“

"Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it.”-- Jonathan Swift, The Examiner, Nov. 9, 1710.

"Skepticism: the mark and even the pose of the educated mind." - John Dewey

• Alternative facts - According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “a fact is a piece of information presented as having objective reality," and alternative means “offering or expressing a choice.” Putting these two words together is problematic because of the implication that there can be multiple “objective realities” from which people can choose instead of just one, true reality.
• Bias - "A preference or an inclination, especially one that inhibits impartial judgment."
• Clickbait - "(On the Internet) content whose main purpose is to attract attention and encourage visitors to click on a link to a particular web page."
• Confirmation bias - "The tendency to seek and interpret information that confirms existing beliefs."
• Echo chamber - "Mainstreaming ideological effect in which a group worldview is reinforced through continual circulation amongst like-minded people."
• Filter bubble - "Phenomenon whereby the ideological perspectives of internet users are reinforced as a result of the selective algorithmic tailoring of search engine results to individual users."
• Parody - "Consists of mocking a style of literary production through an exaggerated imitation."
• Post-truth - "Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief."
• Propaganda - “the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person”
• Satire - The use of humor, irony, and exaggeration to ridicule a subject, often a politician.

Source: Definitions from:  https://www.merriam-webster.com/

Stay Alert. Stay Informed.

Do you receive information and accept it as truth? Do you know when you are being manipulated? Do you receive information and question it? Falling victim to disinformation, misinformation, and malinformation is a consequence of not knowing HOW to question information received in a multitude of ways, especially through social media. Critical thinking is a foundational skill for all of us and essential for good judgment. 

International Fact-Checking Day is promoted by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) in partnership with fact-checking organizations around the world. It is observed annually on April 2nd. Fact-checking shouldn't be something only professional fact-checkers do. An accurate information ecosystem requires everyone to do their part.

This guide was originally created by Sharon Fox, Instruction Librarian, Emeritus, at St. Louis Community College. The guide is now maintained by a team of STLCC librarians.