Spring 2018

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We are in the information age, but not everything we read
is truthful. Are we able to tell truth from fiction? Are our
kids able to determine what news and information is
real and what is fake?
A recent study from Stanford researchers considers this ques-
tion. The study evaluated students’abilities to determine if infor-
mation sources are real or fake.
Stanford researchers described the results as “dismaying,”
“bleak,” and “[a] threat to democracy.”
How did this happen?
We’re getting a lot of our informationonline.Twitter, Facebook,
and other sources online have become places we go for current
news. We’re following links to stories we see flow through our
social media accounts to get news in realtime, but we’re finding
with the convenience of this“instant access”comes a whole new
ballgame.
How can we determine if those sources are truthful or not?
1. Pay attention to the URL
When you go to any website, look at the URL. Most legitimate
news sources are going to be a .com. If you see something like a
or anything that looks odd, that’s a clue it may be a fake
news site. You can certainly have .gov or .org. Those are going
to be legitimate URLs. But if you start seeing additional .XX after
the .com, .org, .gov, or anything that is not a normal URL ending,
begin questioning the source.
Remember: Established news organizations usually use their
own domain, and they’re going to have a standard domain URL
along with that.
Tip: If you find yourself on what you think is a legitimate news
source but notice the URL has an odd ending, go check out just
the regular .com. It’s likely you’ll find out you’ve landed on a fake
news source.
2. There should be an “about us” section.
Most, if not all, credible sources of news information are going
to have an About Us section. They want you to know who they
are, who the people are writing the stories, and their creden-
tials. All that information, for most websites and news sources,
is totally transparent. If you go to a site and there’s no About Us
section or the About Us section is incredibly vague with no way
to contact those running the site, then chances are it’s not the
most legitimate source of information you’re going to find.
Remember: Legitimate sites have a clear About Us section.
They are proud of their site, their writers, and their credentials.
3. Look for quotes within the story
When writing a story, quotes and sources should be cited and
linked to the original source. If you don’t see quotes in the story
that are linking to those sources, that should be a little red flag
that it’s not a credible news source. The links should be to repu-
table sources. Links should not reference another site or per-
son who’s quoting that same quote. You’re looking for the first
source of information.
4. Check the comments
Many fake and misleading stories are shared on social media
platforms using dramatic headlines. These sorts of headlines are
used intentionally to inflame or mislead. People read the head-
line, are initially aggravated, and comment. This tactic draws
many comments, and the comments cause greater visibility and
circulation. Many people initially don’t read the article, but once
there are several comments, people begin to believe the story
must be true.
Remember: Check that comment section and make sure
that’s not the case. A lot of the comments are going to come
from Facebook, and Twitter, and social media, and other places
because, again, they’ve used a headline that’s meant just for so-
cial media and causes a lot of responses without people really
going and understanding the story at all.
5. Use the reverse search image
Just like misleading story headlines, images can be used to
generate traffic. Often the image circulating won’t even represent
the often refer to these as“clickbait”because the image
is used solely to get users to click so they land on a web page.
Remember: It’s easy to“Google search”an image. If you see an
image that looks unrealistic or just want to verify an image be-
fore clicking through, you can do a quick Google image search
to find and verify the image. To do this, right click on the image.
Select Google search for the image.
Being able to tell truth from fiction is a skill all kids need. It’s a
skill adults need as well. I’d encourage you to talk about real and
fake news with your kids.
Begin a family project and keep track of howmany times you can
spot real news and fake news. Note the sources that are reliable,
and begin to take note of where fake news pops up the most.
Leah lives in Central Illinois. She is a wife and mom of 2
homeschool graduates. She’s a popular speaker who encour-
ages parents to walk with their kids through the world of so-
cial media and technology to raise a generation of digitally
responsible young adults. Article used with permission from
Helping Our
Kids Tell
Truth From
Fiction
BY LEAH NIEMAN