Identifying Misinformation

Here are some things to consider or check to identify misinformation, disinformation, and fake news:

Does the article make you feel very strongly about the subject?

• Does it make you angry? Sad? Horrified? Excited? Does it make you want to take immediate action and share the article? Take these responses as reasons to look deeper into the article. Fake or misleading news articles rely on our emotional responses to spread farther.

Do a little research.

• Look up the site or source on lists of known fake news sites.

• Does the article list an author or authors? What are their credentials? Are they well respected? By whom?

• Read the "About Us" page. Who are the owners, writers, publisher, etc.? What are their credentials? Are they well respected? By whom? Who is affiliated with the organization? Note: This portion of the site may also identify it as satire.

• What do you learn about the site/owner/author/publisher when you search them (on Google, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, etc?)

• Do a reverse image search to identify misused images or images taken out of context.

Can you find the same topic covered by other, reputable news sources?

• Do other reputable news sources portray the event in similar ways?

• If it seems like big news but is the only source of coverage, it's a red flag.

• Can you identify strong bias? Any topic will likely be covered in a variety of ways, and taking this step will help you place the article in context.

Use these links to help you evaluate both known stories and media sources.

Note: Do these sources have bias? They might! Bias is inherent to the human condition.

Remember to evaluate what you find in fact-checking sites as you would with other sources.

• AllSides
  See a single news story covered from a variety of news sources, listed by their bias. Take a look at what different sides are talking about in the news.

• Emergent
  Tracks rumors big and small, identifying them as truth or fiction.

• FactCheck
  From the Annenberg Public Policy Center.

• Google's Fact Check Explorer

Search for an issue of interest and see what fact checks exist on the topic.

• List of Fake Sites

Are you trying to figure out if a website hosts fake news? Check out this list from Melissa Zimdars at Merrimack College, where she tracks current reports of websites and evaluates them for accuracy and bias

• Media Bias / Fact Check

Check on the bias of sources, and fact check stories.

• The News Literacy Project

Learn how to check facts and increase your news literacy. This site also includes lessons for educators.

• Snopes

Site that debunks urban legends and memes.

• Verification Handbook
  Geared toward journalism professionals, this handbook teaches how to verify claims from user generated content during emergencies.

• Washington Post Fact Checker

Checks political claims and other news items.

Here are some browser extensions that can help you spot fake news while searching the web. Remember that none of these tools is perfect, but you might find one or more to be useful, along with your own evaluation of the news sources and stories you encounter.

• Fake News Detector

A crowdsourced approach to detecting and flagging news directly from your Facebook and Twitter feeds.

• Newsguard

Newsguard rates sites you visit according their credibility scale, with input from experienced reporters. Available for Chrome, Edge, Safari, and Firefox.

• Open Mind

Developed by students at Yale, this extension analyzes the news articles you read and flags the biases in those articles for you so that you can decide for yourself what is reliable or not.

• SureOrNot

SureOrNot lets you know when you're viewing an outdated article in your Facebook feed, to help you take caution when sharing a story with others.

• SurfSafe

SurfSafe is a Chrome browser extension that fights fake news by identifying images that have been altered. Hover over an image, and SurfSafe scans its database for a match. Note that a drawback is if an image doesn't exist in their database, they're unable to confirm whether an image is fake, Photoshopped, etc.

• Trusted News

This extension flags the trustworthiness of the sites you visit, relying on Metacert, Politifact, Snopes, and Melissa Zimdars for their ratings.