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The News is Everywhere: How to Spot the Good, the Bad, and the Make Believe

Information is everywhere, and it can be hard to keep up with, let alone, ensure the news you are receiving is accurate. This guide is designed to encourage readers to examine the information they receive and feel empowered to determine its validity.

Quick and simple debunking exercise

Compare these two links.  Which one do you think is true?  Why or why not?
1 - Eat This Not That: Shocking Facts About Farmed Salmon
2 - Washington State Department of Health: Farmed vs. Wild Salmon

Other tips for fact checking and avoiding fake news

  1. When you open up a news article in your browser, open a second, empty tab.  Use that second window to look up claims, author credentials and organizations that you come across in the article.
  2. Fake news spans across all kinds of media - printed and online articles, podcasts, YouTube videos, radio shows, even still images. Be prepared to double-check everything.
  3. Beware of confirmation bias.  Just because you might agree with what an article is saying doesn't mean it's true.
  4. As Mad-Eye Moody said in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, "Constant Vigilance!"  Always be ready to fact check.
  5. Even the best researchers will be fooled once in a while.  If you find yourself fooled by a fake news story, use your experience as a learning tool.

Library Resources

Want to know more?  Here are a few of Pikes Peak Library District databases that cover current events:

Other Resources

Pikes Peak Community College Libraries
Information ∞ Inquiry ∞ Learning