What's wrong with fake news?
Why should you care about whether or not your news is real or fake?
- You deserve the truth. You are smart enough to make up your own mind - as long as you have the real facts in front of you. You have every right to be insulted when you read fake news, because you are in essence being treated like an idiot.
- Fake news destroys your credibility. If your arguments are built on bad information, it will be much more difficult for people to believe you in the future.
- Fake news can hurt you, and a lot of other people. Purveyors of fake and misleading medical advice like Mercola.com and NaturalNews.com help perpetuate myths like HIV and AIDS aren't related, or that vaccines cause autism. These sites are heavily visited and their lies are dangerous.
- Real news can benefit you. If you want to buy stock in a company, you want to read accurate articles about that company so you can invest wisely. If you are planning on voting in an election, you want to read as much good information on a candidate so you can vote for the person who best represents your ideas and beliefs. Fake news will not help you make money or make the world a better place, but real news can.
Subject Guide
What can I do to avoid fake news?
Fake news in the news
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TIME: Don't Dismiss President Trump's Attacks on the Media as Mere Stupidity
About why Donald Trump calls media that reports factually on him fake news in an effort to limit the credibility of real news.
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ABCNews: When Fake News Makes Real News Headline
About a fake story which was treated as real news. Traces some of the pipeline for developing and distributing fake news -
NPR: We Tracked Down a Fake-News CreatorAbout Jestin Coler, who began creating and distributing fake news in 2013.
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NPR: Students Have Dismaying Inability to Tell Fake News ApartMany students cannot tell fake news from real news.
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The Atlantic: The Food Babe, Enemy of ChemicalsAn examination of claims made by The Food Babe, with pointed analysis by professor Kevin Folta of the University of Florida
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New York Times: How Fake News Goes ViralFrom a single Tweeter with 35 friends to being shared over 400,000 times through various forums, this article traces a Tweet made November 9th, 2016.
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CNN: Fake News, Real Violence"Pizzagate" was a fake news story which connected a pizzeria with a child pornography ring allegedly run by Hillary Clinton and John Podesta. On Sunday, December 3, 2016, an armed shooter entered the pizzeria and fired a shot before being accosted by the police.
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NPR: How to Tell Real News from Fake News in 'Post-Truth' EraThis article discusses "post-truth", the idea that all news outlets will fail you eventually and it's impossible to know who to trust. It provides some commonsense advice on what to look for in a news outlet.
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Global Challenges: Inoculating the Public against Misinformation about Climate ChangeCovers a new theory about combating fake news known as "attitudinal inoculation" and follows two studies testing this method.
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TED: How to tell fake news from real newsA brief selection of things to look for when determining the fakeness of news.
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The Atlantic: The Rise of Progressive "Fake News"This interview with Snopes editor Brooke Binkowski examines the emotional pull of fake news
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BBC.com: How do Fake News Sites Make Money?An investigation into how profitable fake news can be.
Other Resources
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The Poynter InstituteThe Poynter Institute develops resources for journalists and writers, plus offers resources on fact checking and media literacy for the general public.
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The News Literacy Project Facebook PageA nonprofit whose purpose is to provide tools and resources to middle and high school students (and their classrooms) on media literacy
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Framework for Information Literacy for Higher EducationFrom the Association for College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of the American Library Association. This is an in-depth look at the factors that go into discerning the reliability of a claim.
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Society of Professional Journalists: Professional Code of EthicsWhat makes real news real? In part, it's because of journalistic ethics. The Society of Journalistic Ethics provides a code of professional ethics for journalists to adhere to.
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AllSidesThis site provides articles and an assessment of their bias, from left to right.
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NPR: Five ways teachers are fighting fake newsFive in-class exercises used by real teachers for teaching about fake news
Fact checking links
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LinkedInA professional networking website where you can look up the authors of articles and books to see if they're credible.
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FactCheckA product of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, this site is terrific for checking up on political claims.
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PolitifactThe Pulitzer Prize-winning Politifact researches the claims of politicians and checks their accuracy.
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Snopes.comOne of the oldest debunking sites on the Internet, Snopes.com focuses on urban legends, news stories and memes. the also cite their sources at the end of each debunking.
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Hoax-SlayerSimilar to Snopes but tighter in scope, Hoax-Slayer focuses on email hoaxes, identity theft scams and spam.
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The Washington Post Fact-CheckerWhile focused primarily on political facts, it covers specific claims in-depth and with plenty of cross-referencing.
Journalistic Code of Ethics
One of the ways in which a news source demonstrates its authenticity and responsibility to its readers is through a publicly accessible code of ethics or standards. A sample of various codes, mission statements and ethics handbooks are listed below.
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American Society of News Editors: Codes of EthicsA comprehensive list of codes of ethics from 47 different news outlets and professional organizations dedicated to journalism
There is, however, no oversight body for journalists. CBC's Neil MacDonald argues that perhaps, in order to combat fake news and President Trump's attacks on their profession, it is time to look at one:
Known fake, parodic and misleading news sites
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The Daily Dot: Fake News Sites ListNOTE: This list is not exhaustive and may be updated at any time. A compiled list of fake news sites to watch out for.
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List of Fake and Parody NewsProfessor Zimdars' original list and criteria, with updates and addenda.
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One of Canada's premier parodic news sites.
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CBC's often quoted as real, satirical news.
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The OnionOne of America's premier parodic news sites.
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The Borowitz ReportFrom humorist Andy Borowitz, a column parodizing and commenting on current news trends
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Dr. Joseph MercolaMercola is a doctor of osteopathy who has frequently been targeted by the FDA for promoting false, misleading and even dangerous medical advice. His site promotes products and his blog includes false and/or misleading information about medical topics.
Attribution
This guide is based on one from Indiana University East and reused and modified under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
