How savvy are you when it comes to fake news? It’s easy for us to read something and assume it’s fake, but there is now a way to know for sure. Well.. there’s a fun online quiz. You’re not necessarily going to be able to use this quiz to identify it when you’re reading the story. But it’s a fun way to know if what you’re reading is real or fake. And with the vast amount of news out there, it’s a good way to know if you’re gullible or not. Head over to Factitious and take the quiz. What it does is shows you actual news stories that have been published. Your job is to figure out if they are true or not.
What I really like about this quiz is that it shows you the source information. Which means if you’re not sure if the news is fake or real, you can check the source. But then you have to decide whether or not the source is actually reporting on real news. For example, one of the articles that I got in the quiz had The Onion as the source. For those of you who aren’t familiar with The Onion, it is a satirical news site. So, in that example, the answer was easy. But some of the other questions weren’t that easy.
The first news article that I got, suggested that a grandfather married his biological granddaughter. My initial response was that this was just gross. But I seriously considered it to be real news for a moment. I selected “fake” and it turns out that I was right. But the articles aren’t always that easy to spot. You really have to think about it for a moment. There was another article that I thought was fake at first. It was about how an Indonesian man was found inside a python. Yep. Turns out it was true.
With the proliferation of fake news over the last couple of years, it makes you wonder if you would be able to spot fake news. I see a lot of headlines, and sometimes I just assume they are fake. But sometimes the news is just that far fetched. What’s worse is that some of the fake news is originating with one of the highest offices in the world – the White House. It makes you wonder who you can trust. Who is actually telling you the truth? And who is unintentionally reporting on other fake news? Which is how it proliferates.
I don’t know if there is an answer, other than to say to be more vigilant. There aren’t any tools out there to help us spot fake news. Even when someone says it’s fake news, there is no way of knowing… or it actually is real and someone is trying to cover it up. However the fake news is making it to our phones and computers, it’s important to really think about it before buying into it. Which is easier said than done. If you’re really not sure, do some additional research to make sure you know what is what. One final note – I got 93%. Yes, one article tripped me up!