Fake or Sponsored Content
(Not everything is what it appears to be)
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There is a lot of information on the worldwide web. It's not all good information. In fact, some of it is actually harmful.
Fake News is news that is created to simply cause a response. It has no basis in fact. You can tell it's fake news because it has no real sources, and it often has no author. Why would someone put fake news on the internet to confuse you? It's all about the clicks.
People who create fake news know that some people love it, and believe it. The more shocking it is, the more people will read it and share it. They do not care about the consequences...they care about the clicks. When someone clicks on a link, someone makes money.
EXAMPLES:
One site that is very biased and likes to post a lot of conspiracy theories is InfoWars.com, created by Alex Jones. InfoWars frequently posts articles with no factual backup, but they lead to some very real consequences.
Here's one to look at above. The headline reads FBI EXPOSES CLINTON PEDOPHILE SATANIC NETWORK.
Your first tip that this is likely not true is right there in the headline. But okay, let's say you want to delve in and see the proof of this horrible allegation.
If you were to look at this article on the InfoWars site, first of all, you wouldn't see an article at all. You'd just see this photo and a link to a Youtube video. If you go to the Youtube video, you can watch Alex Jones present 'evidence' to support this claim. However, the evidence is questionable if you know what to look for.
First of all, let's look at the FBI connection. That sounds serious, but it turns out that really what the unnamed FBI agent said is that Clinton is not well-liked in the FBI.
Let's look at the "Pedophile" part of the headline. Where are they getting that information? It turns out they're getting it from a public relations release announcing a pool party for Clinton's campaign workers. An email was leaked, and InfoWars characterized it as advertising a child sex party. Look at the email to the left. Is that what it sounds like to you? Or like a friend describing a nice, family-oriented pool party?
Finally, let's look at the 'Satanic' portion of the story. Jones bases this on something from Bill Clinton's book. It's a bit hard to read it, because there is an ad pushing election coverage over one portion of the highlighted book, but if you read it, you'll see that it details the Clintons' travels to Haiti. Haiti does have voodoo practitioners. Clinton, and many others, may find that cultural idea to be interesting. The passage in the book does NOT indicate that Clinton practices voodoo or satanic rituals (and by the way, voodoo and satanism are not the same religion anyway.)
In conclusion, what appears to be a real shocker of a story turns out to be not a story at all. However, for people who read that website, it may have swayed their opinions of Hillary Clinton, and damaged her in the campaign. This is why it is crucial for everyone to understand how to analyze what they read, especially in articles or videos published with no or minimal legitimate sources.
If you would like to add a Chrome extension to your browser to help you spot fake or questionable sources, there is an app called FAKE NEWS ALERT . When added to your browser, this app puts a banner across the top of potentially questionable news stories. It does not censor; it only lets you know that the site you are reading MAY contain fake or unsupported stories. It labels both conservative and liberal media sources.
What is sponsored content?
What is sponsored content?
The term "Sponsored content" refers to stories or advertisements that pop up when you are searching in Google or another search engine. They are labeled, but sometimes it is tough to see the labels (they're usually not really noticeable because the group wants you to THINK the content is real news.)
You really have to LOOK for tags that indicate sponsored content.
The arrows in the photo have been added by me. In this example from the Washington Post, the only clue that the story near the arrows is sponsored content is that it is labeled CONTENT FROM OPPENHEIMER FUNDS, and if you hover over the letter 'i' in the circle, you'll see a message that informs you that this is sponsored content (an ad, basically.)
Below, the screen capture from Fox News shows a block of 'sponsored stories', and in very light, small print, you can see Ad Content by Outbrain. However, the block next to that which says Don't miss... looks different, and you might think it's part of the Fox News website. However, if you click on those stories under Don't miss, you'll see that many of them are from other websites that basically sell services or recommend programs, even if they have the Fox News logo on them.
In this screen shot from Time Magazine, you can there are obvious ads (Rolex) as well as things listed as AROUND THE WEB that are actually more like ads as well.
And here is an example from NBC news, where there is a label 'advertisement' as well as a SPONSORED link in amongst the actual news stories.
The bottom line is this: when you are reading information on a website, check for sources and check for authors. Be an aware consumer of information.
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