Social Media Fact Searching

When scrolling through your social media accounts, it is common for you to see many different news articles pop up on your feed and sometimes it can be difficult to determine if the news articles are real or fake.  To determine if the article is true or fake, consider the following: 

• Look at the source: Is the article posted from a mainstream site that is trusted or a clickbait site that is trying to grab your attention?

• Examine the publisher's website: Make sure to look at the description of the site.  Some sites admit that their articles are fake and are satirical. Other sites may be trying to trick you so look at the web address of the website. 

• Confer with a fact checking site: If you can't determine if the article is true on your own, then turn to different reputable fact checking sites to help you debunk fake news. 

• Check for grammar: When reading the article, look for proper punctuation, spelling, and grammar. If a title is in all capital letters or the author uses a lot of exclamation points, there is a good chance that the article is fake. 

• Look for other reports on the topic: Survey if any other reputable sites are reporting on the same topic. If it is a big news report, then the report will go farther than just your social media feed. 

When checking to see if an article is true, you can always look to see if any of the following organizations that are generally looked at as trustworthy news sites have reported on the same topic:

• New York Times Links to an external site.
• Wall Street Journal Links to an external site.
• Washington Post Links to an external site.
• National Public Radio (NPR) Links to an external site.
• Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Links to an external site.

 

Bots Spreading Fake News

Another big issue on social media is the use of bots to spread fake news.

What is a Bot?

A bot is an application that runs automated tasks over the Internet. 

How do Bots Spread Fake News?

Bots spread fake news by looking for keywords or hashtags on controversial topics.  Then they use a computer algorithm to create and share posts with extreme views that they know will entice people. This is another reason to use the checklist above to determine if articles on social media are true or fake. 

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