Fake news is on the rise, almost everywhere. With the advent of the internet and because of obtaining a website at an easy cost in our technological age, obtaining attention on the webspace is as easy as ABC, so to speak. Anybody with a computer, or even a smartphone, a website (blog), a social media account and an internet connection can put something out there, on the world wide web just in seconds.
It’s very frightening to note how, in seconds, every fake news or distorted information put on the internet can spread to the most distant part of the world. This is made simple by means of social media forwarding. Evidently, this has led to the fast-rising problem of fake news spreading, one of the modern social media canker. Fake news can spread like fire and the results can be very catastrophic.
There are a hundred ways to get fake news out on the internet, thousand means to get it believed, and still, a million methods to get it spread like wildfire. Spanning from outrageous headlines that catch readers’ attention to content promotion via social media sites and apps, malicious authors can easily get the game running. For a fact, it is often difficult to stop fake news from spreading due to mass forwarding usually by inexperienced internet users.
The thing is, they find an outrageous headline, forward it without taking few minutes to ascertain the facts by researching on the headline or at least read the full content to get ample understanding of the information raised in the headline. They simply don’t have the time to read meaning into alarming headlines but will always find it easier to forward the same to others. Very worrying!
Researchers have found out that most fake news does well to reach more audience online than most authentic information. To get the fake news to spread, the so-called authors put in no effort than use outrageous or alarming headlines usually those that are catchy and easy to grab every user’s attention on first sight. This works best because most internet users will forward content with alarming headlines even before reading if they will read it at all.
Further, a lot of people like their ears to be tickled with worthless information than to get it soothed with pleasant educative content. Put a wonderful article there and they will ignore it, share an educative content or media online and they will never check it out. But post an outrageous headline, a funny content or a worthless media and, fast, they’ll check it out and even take an extra step to share.
As noted earlier at the beginning of this article, spreading fake news is very easier but what of combating the practice? That’s one of the most difficult tasks on earth. Actually, to stop the rising menace of fake news, we first need to detect what news is fake. It’s very important to spot fake news and take extra steps to separate the fact from fictions. Following this, I am highlighting seven (7) relevant tips which have been proven to be the best steps to walk in spotting fake news on the internet.
Focus on the source
Is there a link to the information you just received or saw in your social media news feed? Follow the link to the website, do a background check on the website and thoroughly investigate their brand. Find out more information about the publishers from their about section. What is the mission of the publishers? Is their contact information published? Check to see if they have a formal privacy policy, terms and conditions page published. Is there any disclaimer or disclosure notice? Check it out because this is where all the important information about a particular website is nailed. Is the brand behind the website real? (continue reading the rest of this article on the next page)
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