The availability of the internet nowadays has made it easier for us to spread information quickly. Information that grabs the attention of people often goes viral.
While this phenomenon can be really helpful in sharing valuable news with others, it is also used by culprits to spread fake news—netizens who find any news exciting share it with others without fact-checking.
The spread of fake news may lead to unrest amongst the masses because of fear or anger. Hence, as a responsible netizen, every internet user must evaluate the news and ensure due fact-checking before sharing it further. Overlooking the need for fact-checking may lead to havoc in uncalled-for reactions, protests, and anarchy.
Many people think that they can’t differentiate between accurate and fabricated news. However, we live in a digital era, where evaluating a piece of news and finding the truth behind it is pretty much possible. All you need to do is know a few practical methods to help you do so.
This article discusses these methods in detail to help you evaluate fake news and find its truth. If you don’t know how to fact-check speculated news, reading this article will significantly help you. Further details are given below.
Pay Attention to the Image
Fake news shared online often comes with images that may sound relevant to the featured information but have nothing to do with the news. Believing what you see may force you to share the news with your circle. Ultimately, you will also play a part in spreading fake news. A great way to ensure that the news image you share is true and doesn’t feature any fabricated or made-up information is by performing a reverse image search. You can use the picture shared with the speculated news to perform a reverse photo lookup, and you will discover the truth behind the news.
Evaluate the Credibility of News Publisher
Whenever you see a piece of news that triggers emotions like fear or anger in average readers, check the source that published the news. Unpopular online sources with weird domain extensions often share fake news, including “.club” and “.xyz”. There could be other domain extensions as well. Simply put, evaluating the credibility of sources who publish the news before sharing it further with anyone is essential. Not paying attention to the source who published the news online can make you take part in the process of sharing fake and fabricated news online.
Evaluate the News Using Critical Eye
We often have a biased opinion in favour of or against a particular community, person, or country. Culprits behind fake news often use these biases to their benefit and create unrest amongst the masses with fabricated information. Hence, it is necessary to keep calm while reading any news, no matter how triggering its headline is. Doing so will help you evaluate the news with a critical eye and figure out what could be the reason behind this news. It will also help you understand who will benefit the most if the news you are viewing turns out to be fake or fabricated.
Go Through Multiple Sources to Verify the News
The availability of the internet has made it easier for us to access highly credible news sources online. Verifying a speculated news is easy. You simply have to search online or access the websites of credible news sources. If you don’t find anything related to the news you have seen before, most probably, the news you have seen is fake. Many credible news sources cover news from various parts of the world. The news published on their behalf goes through a highly efficient editorial process before making it public. Hence, such sources don’t share fake or biased news so you can verify news from different sources.
In the End
Evaluating any piece of news and finding the truth behind it is not difficult anymore. You just need to know a few highly effective methods, including critical review, reverse image search, and verification through multiple sources. We have discussed the above methods to help you easily evaluate and identify fake news shared online and limit its spread. We hope you will find this article useful!
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