Evaluating News

A quick way to evaluate news

First off, get news from several different sources!  Relying on one news source is a sure way to guarantee that we will be vulnerable to fake news.  Sometimes a story reported as fact in one source will be questioned by another; when that happens, look into the story to see if it is simply a difference of perspective or if one is trying to pass along a fake story.

Additionally, a National Public Radio blog post from December 2016, gives a quick set of steps for determining whether a news story is fake, based on the work of Dr. Melissa Zimdars, Assistant Professor of Communications and Media at Merrimack College in Massachusetts: 

1. Pay attention to the domain and URL (web address) of the story.  Sites that end in .com are commercial sites and may pass suspect information, but some are very legitimate sources of news--www.economist.com, for example is the website for The Economist, a highly respected magazine.  Any site though, that ends in .com.co should not be taken at face value--abcnews.com.co for example is a site that tries to mimic abcnews.com (a legitimate news source), but that passes along fake news.
2. Read the "About" or "About us" section of any site that gives news.  Sometimes these sections will openly admit they are passing fake or satirical news stories (The Onion is a famous satirical news site).  Sometimes these sections will mention associated organizations that can be checked into.  If there is no "About" section, then the owners of the site are not willing to take responsibility for their work and should not be trusted.
3. Look at quotes in the story and at persons quoted.  Fake news stories will often not even contain quotes or will give quotes from unnamed sources only because the creators of the story can be held libel for misusing or creating fake quotes from real people.  Also, pay attention to doctors, professors, and researchers quoted in stories.  Some fake news stories create bogus names of hospitals, research institutes, and even universities.  If a name is given and they are supposed to be a professor at a university, do a quick search for the person and the university.  Most professors have pages on Linkedin or their university sites that will detail their work history.  If a name is given and you can't track that person down or they were never associated with a given university, hospital, etc. the story is likely falsified.
4. Check the headline and comments. A newer trend in fake news is sensational sounding headlines that have nothing or very little to do with the content of the story or make very unreasonable claims--a popular fake story from 2016 was one that claimed that President Obama had signed an executive order banning the Pledge of Alliance.  Looking at the comments can be very informative.  If the comments simply re-hash the story, then there may not be much to it; also, be wary of comments that contain violent or extreme language.  Sometimes the comments will call out the story and give sources countering it; pay attention to these.
5. Fact check stories.  Fact check stories either on your own or through one of a number of websites dedicated to fact-checking news stories.  Several of these websites include Snopes.com, Politifact, and FactCheck.org (sponsored by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, a reputable organization studying current events and politics.
6. Do a reverse image search.  Many fake news stories are accompanied by pictures that actually have nothing to do with the story they are telling.  A well-known example from 2001 claimed that people all over the Middle East celebrated in the streets after 9/11.  What was filmed, however, was a small-scale celebration of some Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank. Images can be reversed search through Google by right clicking on the image to search it in Google.  If the image appears on multiple sites for different stories, be suspicious.
7. Question news from social media.  The primary way fake news stories travel is through social media.  If you see a sensational headline in Twitter, Facebook, etc. do not take it at face value.  Check into it.  Check into the site.  There are a number of sites that specialize in fake news and conspiracy theories and should not be trusted.

Additionally, below is a short handout put out by CQ Press on recognizing fake news.