Hey everyone! I recently came across a TED-Ed video regarding common misconceptions, and decided to hop on here to share some information regarding “fake news.” During the past few eventful years, we’ve definitely all witnessed the growing amount of misinformation and disinformation in the media. Luckily, there are some great ways to determine the accuracy of the information you read online!
What is Fake News?
- Fake news is a general term that describes inaccurate or falsified information, published as news for specific purposes such as political motivation.
- Similar, yet different, are the terms misinformation and disinformation.
Misinformation:
- Inaccurate or misleading information presented and spread, regardless of the intention to deceive.
Remember when the pandemic first started, and we were stuck at home, scrolling through our instagram feeds? Well, you might remember seeing a trending photo of dolphins swimming in the Grand Canal. If you were like me, you decided to like the photo, chuckle to yourself, then shout to your brother across the room that “because of covid, dolphins are swimming around the streets of Venice!”
In case any of you were part of the millions of people spreading the photo around social media, there were (unfortunately) no majestic, happy dolphins swimming in the Grand Canal. I know, we were all slightly disappointed.
- However, this was a perfect example of misinformation. People shared the image around social media without knowing it was fake.
*Although, I have to note for those dolphin lovers out there, there were (ironically) dolphins spotted in Venice later on in the pandemic. This was after the original photo was already declared as falsified by numerous news sites.*
Disinformation:
- False and inaccurate information that is presented and spread with the clear intention to be deliberately deceptive.
- Some common examples of disinformation are deep fakes and fake news sites.
- Although there are some hilarious deep fakes of famous people saying unrealistic things, sometimes (with good editing and technology skills), deep fakes can easily become dangerous in spreading disinformation.
- As for fake news sites, it can be quite simple to identify them, especially with some tips I’ve included below!
What can you do?
Practicing your ability to detect fake news can help you distinguish between accurate news, and false information!
- Ask yourself: is this too good to be true? What does my logic and reasoning tell me?
- Is there clear publication information available? Can you see where the sources are from? Does it provide the year and the date of publication?
- Does the source lean heavily towards one viewpoint?
- What do other sources say about this topic?
- Is the author or organization well known? What are their credentials?
- What platform are you viewing this source from? (Social media, the news, a website, a friend?)
Conclusion:
Although it can be tricky to tell whether the information you find is true, the questions above may help you better distinguish how accurate some information/news really is.
And that’s it from me! I hope you now know a little more about the types of false information, and what you can do about it!