In the midst of all the chaos in our country, our social media and IM feeds are blowing up with messages of all kinds. Some informative, some interesting, some true and some purely fake ones. Today, at StackMantle, we want to help you with some simple tips to fact check and avoid getting duped by some false content.
Verify before you share. Anyone can make mistakes, cross check on multiple sources before you go ahead with sharing anything you have received.
- Check the source website in detail
- Go to publications website, check their about us page
- Google about the website and read other articles on the site
- Check what makes that website a reliable source i.e. what their source of information
- In most cases, if the content is true, there will be multiple well known sources citing the same content, look for those
- Check language of the article, if it is making you really angry and emotional, cross check again. Real news is written to inform, not to instigate
Here are some facts that are often misrepresented.
- Statistics
- Names
- References to time, date, distance and physical locations
- Historical facts
Where to cross check?
- Government reports that are published by the government websites
- Statistics from official sources such as various ministry websites
- Court documents available on public forums
- Research from reliable educational and research institutes
- Fact checking websites such as, Alt News, SMHoaxslayer etc.
Follow these simple steps and keep yourself out of the fake news cyclone. Share and make your loved ones safe and aware too.
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