Recognize Fake News
People who create fake news try to fool readers into thinking the information comes from a reputable source. Keep the following best practices in mind to make sure your information source is legitimate. Website evaluation tests, like the CRAAP test (Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose), are also useful.
Some websites are created to mimic mainstream news sites:
- Look for contact information with a verifiable address and affiliation.
- Look for an About page, often in the header or footer of the home page. Read the About page closely for evidence of partisanship or bias. If there's no About page and no Contact page, be very skeptical.
- In staff listings (or on the About page), look critically at the list of executives. Are they real people or stock photos? Open a new tab and look for another profile of the individual (e.g. LinkedIn).
- Perform an independent search for the news source. Compare and verify URLs.
Example: http://abcnews.com.co/ (fake site) is not the ABC Network News http://abcnews.go.com, but the logo and the URL are almost identical.
Advertisements designed to look like news stories:
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Look for labels: a corporate logo or a tiny statement indicating Paid Post, Advertisement, or Sponsored by. Advertisements may also have a tiny Ad Choices triangle at the upper right corner of an image.
Satirical news sites created for humor:
- Satirical news sites attempt to mimic the look of mainstream journalism. If the content of the news article seems too outlandish or absurd, it might be satire. Research the website and author to determine if the article is legitimate.
- One of the most popular satirical news sites is The Onion.