Why does misinformation matter? What's the harm in spreading falsehoods, especially if your intent is good?

Misinformation weakens real media reports and makes it difficult for journalists to cover important news stories.

"Don't believe everything you read on the internet just because there's a picture with a quote next to it." - Abraham Lincoln

Fake news spans across all kinds of media - printed and online articles, podcasts, YouTube videos, radio shows, even still images. Be prepared to double-check everything. When you open up a news article in your browser, open a second, empty tab. Use that second window to look up claims, author credentials and organizations that you come across in the article. Even the best researchers will be fooled once in a while. If you find yourself fooled by a fake news story, use your experience as a learning tool. Use the questions below to help you identify fake news articles.

What is the main idea of this article?

What is the point this article is trying to make? Was it easy to find? Does the title of the article make sense?

How does this article want me to feel?

What kind of language is being used? Are the images positive or negative? Do you see lots of exclamation points and words in bold that make you pay attention to them?

Does this article provide evidence for its claim from good sources?

Are the links provided sending you to medical journals, articles in well-researched publications or statistical sites?Or are they sending you to "alternative" sites with little factual information?

Am I able to independently verify claims in this article?

If a claim doesn't have a link in the article, can I find information on it myself? Are all the links simply recycled from one source, or are there multiple tests, surveys, studies or other sources available?

Beware of confirmation bias. Just because you might agree with what an article is saying doesn't mean it's true.

What is confirmation bias?

Confirmation bias is the impulse to search for and interpret information in a way that confirms one's own beliefs. In short – we accept things as true if they support our beliefs. Worse, we accept them without question. Everyone is susceptible to this. It might be the most powerful bias at work our daily lives. Evidence that does not support our beliefs is either dismissed as wrong or an aberration. How it works is this – “I’m right. Therefore anything that disagrees with me is wrong.”

Social Media Example:

Facebook sharing behavior might be the single largest observed data set of confirmation bias at work. Most people don’t bother to read articles they share on Facebook. They simply share them because they agree with the headline, and assume that the article must be true. This is dangerous.

Confirmation bias + blind sharing = fake news and misinformation

The cartoon below illustrates this phenomenon. Have you ever been guilty of this?

Adapted from Lowe, K. T. (2018, September 17). LibGuides: Fake News: Check your own claim! Retrieved September 25, 2018, from http://iue.libguides.com/fakenews/checkup

Google Image Result for Https://Pics.me.me/Dont-Believe-Everything-You-Read-on-the-Internet-Just-Because-15150582.Png, goo.gl/images/1jto3M.

Google Image Result for Https://Blog.deming.org/Wp-Content/Uploads/2016/12/Confirmation-Bias.png, goo.gl/images/79qPBT.

Click the "Next" button to continue through the "Evaluating Online Information" module.