4 Points That Will Help You Spot Fake News

1. 4 POINTS THAT WILL HELP YOU SPOT FAKE NEWS Events happening all around the world are in the news every day and it never ends. But do you actually know to spot fake news? Let us give you a hint of what we are talking about. Imagine this scenario! You are heading towards your office and suddenly a friend of yours mentions you in a post which is related to the company where you currently are working. Let’s say it says so and so company loses its stocks and is likely to hit the ground soon! You lose it and as soon as you see the post, you quickly forward it to your office group and forward it to every person working in the office in your mailing list. Before you actually forwarded this, did you even realize that it might be fake news? Did you check the source of the news? Most likely no! Well, you have become a victim of fake news. Your colleagues might have a hard time trusting you in the future. Now the main thing is that you did spot fake news here, but how to fix fake news going rampant and viral is the main concern. Let us give you some tips that you might want to keep in mind before forwarding another news article to your office mailing list and also how to curb fake news. How to Deal with Fake News? 1. Have a Steady Mindset The reason fake news and such articles go viral is because of the reason that they have intimidating headlines which grab everybody’s attention. It is always important to keep your emotional response in check towards such stories. Make sure to approach whatever you see and hear. Amend the fact why this particular news has been written and try to do a personal analysis if it actually is credible or not. 2. Check the Source of the Article The next time you are reading an article online or news, try to verify its source and do some digging. Try to learn about the publisher and the whole news agency. Verified news sites don’t have such issues, but the

2. unverified ones need a lot of credibilities. Try to check the URL of the page too and if it has extensions like ‘.offer’ or ‘.infonet’, then something might be fishy. 3. Examine the Evidence Whenever the news story is real, it surely would have a lot of facts and quotes from experts and enough data to back the whole story up. However, if it is lacking evidence, you might want to re-consider believing it. Make sure to check the credibility of all the news stories that you are reading. 4. Look for Any Fake Images Creating fake images using Photoshop or anything is quite easy now and such kind of images could easily be used in these kinds of news articles. Monitor the pictures well and make sure to look for any kind of flaw or anything that would help you judge if these images are real or fake. These points to stop fake news are more or less a matter of awareness and common sense, having these can save people from being lynched, communities from getting burned or careers from getting destroyed. If you think Mass Communication and Journalism is something you would like to take up professionally pay a visit to www.nimcj.org to know more.