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Information Literacy and "Fake News"

Fake news is a hot topic and a big problem! What can you do to help stop spreading false information? Find out how to evaluate news and news sources.

Tips for identifying bogusness: Recognize unreliable sources

Tips to help you identify bogusness

It can be difficult to recognize disinformation or misinformation. The tips below offers some initial guidance, but keep in mind that many dubious sources are much more subtle and difficult to identify. These tips are for the more easily recognizable sources that are bogus. You will need to develop more sophisticated evaluation skills discussed in this guide to weed out the less obvious unreliable sources.

  • The author is anonymous.If an author is unnamed, be suspicious. If the story were true, why wouldn’t the author put his or her name on it? Anonymous stories may be a sign of bogusness, but not always.
  • The author quotes a famous person. Quotes that are attributed to famous people can turn out to be false as well. By using a famous person’s name, the author may be trying to legitimize the fake news by making it appear to be supported by authoritative sources.
  • The author loves using exclamation points!!! The author is trying to get an emotional response from you instead of appealing to your logic. The same applies to excessive use of capital letters.
  • The fake news refers to a legitimate source that completely contradicts the information in the fake source.Some stories will invite readers to check out the claims, even providing a link to a respected source because they know most people won’t check the links. Verify claims. Warning: Phishing attempts have become more sophisticated, so before you click on a hyperlink in a suspicious email or article, make sure that it is in fact the correct URL and will bring you to the respected source you want. Try Googling for the outside source instead, if in doubt.
  • The message is riddled with spelling errors.Why should you trust an author who is semi-illiterate?
  • The message argues that it is NOT false.Be skeptical about any message that says, “This is NOT a hoax!”
  • There’s math involved. Writers rely on the fact that most people won't check the math. You should verify the math. 

Tips by Lori Robertson on FactCheck.org. See full article below.