Vetting Honest News
At this point in time, we’re practically desensitized to the term fake news. It’s been tossed around so frequently and used in so many different contexts that it’s difficult to decipher what fake news is at its core.
Fake news is false information that’s posed and published as true, honest information. Fake news is published with an agenda — to earn money, to damage a reputation, to spin an event. There’s always a latent goal in the publication of fake news.
What does fake news look like? Here are some details to keep a watchful eye on when you’re reading through news content on your social feeds.
- Check the publisher and author.
Who published the article? Most fake news publishers have an agenda bias. You can identify these biases by researching the publisher and the author. You’ll quickly be able to uncover a leaning, typically of a political nature, of the publisher and/or the author which gives the article a slant.
2. Check the tone of the verbiage.
Take a close look at the words that are used. Do they carry a slanted connotation? Do the numbers/facts/graphs/information have reliable sources? Take these things into consideration while you read your news.
3. Check the quality.
Scout your articles for things like spelling errors, dramatic punctuation, brand authenticity and timeliness. Articles and information that come from reputable sources will be mostly void of these unfinished elements.
Note how the publisher of the headline below is posed as BBC. An image from the actual BBC website follows the image.
Moving forward, here are some steps you can take to ensure you’re consuming honest news.
4. Take it international.
If you’re reading about national politics, try collecting your news from an international news outlet. Most international news outlets don’t benefit from establishing a slant on U.S. politics. That means the news the publish won’t have a latent agenda, just pure news.
5. Take it to a fact checker.
Resources such as snopes.com and the International Fact-Checking Network exist to help bring clarity to your newsfeed. You can also compare your article to another publisher that’s reporting on the same event/subject. Compare the sources and information that are referenced. If there are discrepancies between the articles, you know that one or neither of the articles is reliable.
As you continue to gather and read news, never take an article at face value. Be willing to identify biases, vet the sources, and filter the information that you’re consuming. Familiarize and appreciate slow journalism.
