Media Fact-Checking Online

Objectives

• Learn how to identify unreliable news
• Share online tools to help you fact-check, or determine the extent of bias in new stories and authors
• Provide tips on how to see the whole story on social media

Terms

• Fake News –When we say “Fake News” in this presentation, we are referring to news that deliberately aims to spread false information or hoaxes. This does not include news that might be biased in a certain direction.

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• Algorithms – This is the coding which helps determine what you see online.

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• Bias – We use this term to refer to any given person or system’s inability to perceive without preference.

Some Notes on Online Media

• The internet has led to further democratization of news media.
• This means that anyone can start a website and post articles and information.
• Because of this, it is important that individuals do the work to determine whether what they are reading is factually correct and unbiased.

News

Types of Unreliable News�

• Satire: sites that use humor, irony, or provide exaggerated/false information to comment on current events.

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• Extremely Biased or Hyper-Partisan: sources express a particular point of view and confirm existing biases; such sites often rely on propaganda, information out of context, and opinions presented as fact

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Types of Unreliable News�

• Clickbait: articles that are generally credible but use exaggerated or misleading headlines to attract traffic�
• Conspiracy Theory/Junk Science: sources that create and/or promote conspiracy theories�
• Fake News: sources that fabricate information, distort actual news reports and/or spread generally deceptive content (created purely for financial gain)

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What makes it unreliable?�

• Not able to be verified
• Intentionally appeals to emotions
• Unreliable news plays on feelings to ensure you won't be skeptical of its contents
• It comes from a fake site
• Do you recognize the website address? If it looks weird or unfamiliar (like abcnews.com.co), it's probably unreliable or downright false.

What makes it unreliable?�

• It has no expert opinions or sources
• Links or sources included do not lead to sources outside of the site's domain or do not relate to the topic of the article.
• Its claims can't be found elsewhere
• Authors of articles aren't experts with credentials or journalists and expert are not consulted. You may not see an author's name at all.
• Look up the claim or idea in a known, reputable news source. If they're not reporting it, it's probably untrue.

How Do I Find Out If The Source is Unreliable?

What makes it reliable?�

• The publication has a reputation for fair reporting
• It relies on facts
• Cites its Sources and �provides evidence
• It is not unique

Fact-Checking Resources�

• Snopes (www.snopes.com)
• One of the original fact-checking websites. It deals with urban legends, news stories and internet memes.

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• Politifact (www.politifact.com)
• Created and run by the Pulitzer Prize-winning editors and reporters of the Tampa Bay Times.

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• The Washington Post's Fact Checker (www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker)
• Run by the Washington Post - one of the most trusted, bi-partisan news sources on politics

Bias-Checking Resources�

• AllSides (www.allsides.com)
• This site offers a well regarded bias rating system intended to help news consumers see and understand different perspectives

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• Media Bias Fact Check (www.mediabiasfactcheck.com)
• MBFC(for short) is an independent site dedicated to educating people on media bias and shedding light on deceptive news practices

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Social Media

Bots Online

• A “bot” is a software application that runs automated tasks over the internet
• Some are helpful, others malicious
• Bots can easily be used in campaigns to spread misinformation
• They are everywhere on the web and they may be on your Facebook, Twitter, in the comment threads on videos and news articles, etc.
• It is important to know how to identify a bot online

Identifying Bots Online

• ANONYMITY - Real people sharing real stories will have full accounts, normally with a photo of themselves. These people will have friends, followers, family and likely engage largely with their friends’ content. The opposite is often true for bots. Lack of information, or generic profile picture like a well-known landmark is common.

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• ACTIVITY - The frequency of their posting and the success of those posts are good indicators of a bot. For example, you might come across an account with only one post and no followers yet whose post has thousands of shares.

Identifying Bots Online

• CONTENT - The people that create bots have an agenda. Whether that’s to drive traffic to a website, generate income, spread political disinformation, etc.

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• STOLEN PHOTOS - It’s not uncommon for bots to steal profile pictures. A quick test can be running their profile picture through Google Image Finder to find the real owner of the image.

Your Facebook Feed is an Echo Chamber

• Social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter can be great easy ways to share and find news
• Your social media feeds use algorithms to determine what you WANT to see
• But because of this, they can turn into an echo chamber, only feeding you news you already know and opinions you already hold

Understand the policies and practices of Social Media sites on facts and news

Though some social media sites have made strides to provide assistance to their users who want to double check the accuracy of posts by their users, others do not have inadequate measures or no measure in place to protect users against the sharing of false information

Facebook Policy

• In June 2020, Facebook announced that it would start putting notices on certain political posts
• In several countries and regions, Facebook works with third-party fact-checking organizations that are certified through the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), to spot and review this type of content and take action.
• However, posts on Facebook (by anyone) still do not need to be factually accurate
• So always be willing to double check the facts of a post before sharing
• Click here to read more about Facebook fact checking

Twitter Policy

• Twitter has implemented a policy to link to fact checked sources - specifically on posts dealing with COVID-19 and voting
• The tweets themselves do not get censored or fact checked directly on the site
• Twitter does not apply this policy to all tweets and twitter accounts - only ones that it has deemed as larger threats
• So there is still the risk of unmarked, factually incorrect content on Twitter
• Additionally, what content gets marked is up to human discretion - meaning who gets check and who doesn’t is not without its biases

Google is Biased just like You

• Search engines are human made and are susceptible to the biases of their creators, but they are also susceptible to your biases.
• When you use a search engine, it gives you results it thinks you WANT to see based on algorithms.
• The way you ask questions on a search engine impacts the results you see.
• So it is important to consider the biases imbedded in your search terms when accessing news through search engines.

Opinions Drive More Traffic

• In the increasingly overcrowded field of journalism opinion pieces, ones that have the most controversial opinions tend to provide more traffic to sites
• Sites rely on traffic to make money, and occasionally, that might take precedent over providing unbiased opinions.
• So be conscious and don’t presume anything to be unbiased even when coming from otherwise trusted news sources

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Check the URL

• Even if you think you are on a trusted news site, there have been cases in which sites pose as other news sites and post false information

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• CNN, NBC and Fox have all had their sites copied to dupe people into thinking they are reading a story from these sources

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• So double check URLs for slight misspellings or other tells

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Click The Links

• You can’t always assume that an author or publisher has properly or sufficiently interpreted their source�
• If you are reading an article (on a safe site) and the text links to something else, open the link
• See for yourself if that author is properly sourcing their information

Reliable Information Sites

Reliable Environmental Information

World Meteorological Organization Statement on State of Global Climate (2022)

• Report is released each year by the WMO provides in depth reports on the current measurements and state of climate change indicators

UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

• On this site you can read all the reports released by the UN panel in charge of assessing climate change science

Skeptical Science

• A great source for getting to the truth of the climate crisis and understanding debunking skepticism about it

Reliable (general) Health Information

DailyMed

• For reliable information on medications and drugs (sourced from the FDA)

Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins

• Both institutions provide reliable online information on medical conditions and procedures

NIH Office of Dietary Supplements

• extensive information on nutrition and things like vitamins and supplements

Thanks for Listening!

If you’d like to learn this lesson with a Cyber-Seniors mentor, please go to www.cyberseniors.org or call 1-844 217-3057 to register for a one-on-one phone session.�

We also host weekly tech drop-in sessions from 2-3 pm (ET) on Thursdays.