With an increasing amount of fake news being produced, how do we tell what is fake and alert others?
Fake news example. 1ndependent Newspaper (www.1independent.co.uk) is trying to fool people into believing this is the Independent newspaper by replacing the letter 'I' with the figure '1'. The site itself is not very convincing - but Phil Bradley got the link via Facebook.
Google has just started adding a link to its news service called 'Fact Check'. But there are other ways to check information.
Verification Junkie (http://verificationjunkie.com/) has an excellent collection of tools for you to use, plus a free download 'Verification Handbook'.
First Draft News (https://firstdraftnews.com) provides information, news quizzes, an excellent selection of resources and some fun and enjoyable training tools.
Full Fact (https://fullfact.org) for UK based news.
Poynter website (www.poynter.org/category/fact-checking/)
Hoax Slayer (www.hoax-slayer.com/)
If any doubt, use your favourite search engine and put in some basic details on the story you are concerned about and add 'hoax' or 'spoof' as additional search terms. You'll probably end up at the Snopes website (www.snopes.com) which has a huge collection of stories with detailed information on the truth or otherwise of the story.
Just for fun - there is a site Factitious at http://factitiousgame.com that displays news stories, and you have to guess if the news is real or fake by swiping to the right or left. if you are uncertain, you can click to see the source of the story before deciding. Fun and informative.
Source: Phil Bradley in CILIP Update, November 2016, March 2017 and September 2017
