WHAT'S FAKE NEWS?

Fake news is a type of yellow journalism or propaganda that consists of deliberate hoaxes spread via news media or online social media. The false information is often caused by reporters paying sources for stories, an unethical practice called checkbook journalism. Digital news has brought back and increased the usage of fake news, or yellow journalism. The news is then often reverberated as misinformation in social media but occasionally finds its way to the mainstream media as well.

Source: Wikipedia

How can we discover fake news?

If you are reading a webpage, use the follow five criteria:

   1. Accuracy
       Who wrote the page and is he/she qualified to write this?

   2. Authority

       Does the publisher list his or her qualifications?

   3. Objectivity 

       How detailed is the information?

   4. Currency

       When was it produced and updated?

   5. Coverage

       Is it all images or a balance of text and images?

tYPES OF FAKE NEWS:

With fake news you have all kinds of forms, there are five forms of fake news:

  1. 100% False
With this type of fake news, you can easily check if it is real or not. An example of this is: ''Paul McCartney is dead''. This is clearly fake because Paul McCartney is still alive.

  2. Slanted and Biased
This type of fake news is that things don't match up with each other like: ''Climate change doesn't cause more hurricanes." This doesn't mean that climate change doesn't exist.

  3. Pure Propaganda
This type of fake news is a message to a group, made in such a way that they are easily convinced. An example is:  ''The USA is the worst country in the world.'' This is clearly an opinion, so this would be Fake News.

  4. Misusing the Data
This type of fake news means that the information in an article is completely not based on facts. An example of that is: ''Beer is good for your brain.'' This is clearly not based on facts, because other studies have shown that it's bad.

  5. Imprecise and sloppy
This type of fake news means that the article is based on opinions and fake information. An example is: ''All CEO's are psycho's." This is clearly an opinion and probably not true either.