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How To: Spot fake news


In recent history false news stories have spread like wildfire online and through social media. Things to keep an eye out for would be extreme titles (“8-year-old girl overdoses on heroin”), titles that are blatantly attention seeking (“You’ll never believe what happened in Idaho, read more here..”), young celebrity deaths, misleading pictures, disreputable sources, and most importantly - bias.

Bias can be very hard to detect, but in most fake news stories, and even true ones, it is present. When searching for bias you should watch for, negatively or positively connotated word choice in the title, journalists weighing one side more heavily than the other or giving it more air time, and quotes from or citations of other bias media outlets.

Many stories being put out around the time of the election, helping or hurting each side. Many of these fake news sites seem to have an agenda, in most cases that agenda is profit driven, but in some cases it is political. As the leader of three head fake news websites explains, they often targeted their material because they knew that they would believe it. They attempted to aim stories to liberals, but they just simply didn’t believe it.

In many cases such fake stories could be dangerous. One story caused a man to take a gun to a pizzeria, because he believed them to be associated with Hillary Clinton. They, in fact, were not, but that goes to show just how dangerous fake news can be. When it becomes a dangerous matter of life or death, it has been taken too far.

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