Online News Sources. Can you know if they are fake news?

Online News Sources--Can you know if they are fake news?

There has been a great deal controversy involving a new term, 'Fake News'. Media reporting, in my opinion, has reached an all time low in the trust of the American people. No longer is reporting the facts the purpose of Newsrooms. Today, it seems, news from every outlet is slanted, opinionated, and purposed towards an agenda. Most Americans read the news on their smartphones or their computers. But, is what we are reading the truth, or a version of the facts that we are led to believe is truth. How can we discern fact from falsehood, truth from lie, or as it is termed today, Fake news. We must all learn to become fact checkers. We have a responsibility to discern what is true. How to do that is issue. If a news fact can be verified objectively, we must seek out trustworthy sources for verification. One way to check an online source is to see if they own their own domain. Those that own their domain are more accountable, while those that don't aren't. An example might be foxnews.com, a legitimate site, but if the site's URL is foxnews.com.co, then reader beware. That source could be anybody. The bottom line, check the sources domain for legitimacy. Look for information about the site using other informational outlets. If it's an organization, and lists on their site their leaders, look for information on them as well. Most reputable news sources will use quotes from multiple sources in their stories. If their are no sources being quoted, this could be another sign that should raise concern over whether the site is trustworthy. Unfortunately, many times false news headlines are shared on social media platforms. No one seems to want to verify the facts. Often headlines are very misleading and exaggerated in an effort to catch the eye of the reader. Social media blows up with these erroneous headlines, that are really just Fake News headlines. Yet, the readers are swept up in creating opinions based on these fake news stories or headlines. If you want to verify the authenticity of a story, look at several different reputable sources, and compare the reporting of the events in those stories. Often times online news outlets will publish a story based on facts in a story that taken out of context. If it involves a speech that was given or a statement made in public, there is usually a record of the speech that can be looked up and the facts can be verified from the actual speech. I saw this occur time and again during the last presidential campaign. When pictures are involved in a fake news story, they can be checked for validity as well. One can do a reverse search for the image on Google, by right clicking the image and let Google search for it. Often times these fake news stories will use a picture that had nothing to do with the real story, but was a picture used to create attention. It can be embarrassing to be the person that reads a fake news story, and then tells their friends and others about it, only to find out later it was all bologna. Don't be fooled, be a fact checker.