Reading 1
FAKE NEWS
What is it?
Completely made-up stories presented as news and made to go viral, often for politically motivated reasons or commercial gain stories are 70 percent more likely to be retweeted because they are usually more eye-catching than the truth. Some people spread fake news deliberately while others do it without realising. The Internet is awash with information that cannot be trusted. The smartphone generation is bombarded with such information practically on a daily basis and they're growing up alarmingly misinformed.
How do you know what you're reading is accurate?
Don't take a story at face value-step back and ask yourself these questions:
Does the story come from a reputable source? Has this website always shown a clear commitment to newsworthy stories based on fact? Alternatively, is this an article put out knowingly by an organisation that has an agenda - an agenda to manipulate the media because of a political or commercial motive?
Does the photo or video look normal? If it looks slightly odd, it may have been tampered with to distort the truth and mislead people into believing something that never actually happened.
Is this story likely to be true? There are different ways in which a story can be inaccurate or misleading. Start from your gut feeling, trust your instincts - does it sound believable? American woman adopts alien baby is clearly fake news. But how about the lottery winner? Would he really carry 5 million euros in cash on a bus? Then there's the story of a person bursting into flames. Unbelievable, right? Not exactly - you can check the accuracy of this story by searching online where you find out that fires in operating theatres are remarkably common! In fact, the third story is the only true story.
(Adapt from English Discovery 12)
