False News

Librarian Stephen Abram published a blog post about False, misleading, clickbait-y, and satirical "news" sources originally created by Melissa Zimdars, an assistant professor of communication and media at Merrimack College.  She also includes these tips for analyzing news sources:   

• Avoid websites that end in “lo” ex: Newslo (from the link above). These sites specialize in taking a piece of accurate information and then packaging that information with other false or misleading “facts.”
• Watch out for websites that end in “.com.co” as they are often fake versions of real news sources.
• Watch out if known/reputable news sites are not also reporting on the story. Sometimes lack of coverage is the result of corporate media bias and other factors, but there should typically be more than one source reporting on a topic or event.
• Odd domain names generally equal odd and rarely truthful news.
• Lack of author attribution may, but not always, signify that the news story is suspect and requires verification.
• Check the “About Us” tab on websites or look up the website on Snopes or Wikipedia for more information about the source.
• If the story makes you REALLY ANGRY it’s probably a good idea to keep reading about the topic via other sources to make sure the story you read wasn’t purposefully trying to make you angry (with potentially misleading or false information) in order to generate shares and ad revenue.
• It’s always best to read multiple sources of information to get a variety of viewpoints and media frames. Some sources not specifically included in this list (although their practices at times may qualify them for addition), such as The Daily Kos and Fox News, vacillate between providing legitimate, problematic, and/or hyperbolic news coverage, requiring readers and viewers to verify and contextualize information with other sources.

The post identifies and lists over 150 false new sites.   You might want to check before you post or share any false stories on social media!

When Good Goes Bad: 10 Most Dangerous Web Sites

I am in a funk after reading the article When Good Goes Bad. Facebook? Twitter? banking/financial sites? YOUTUBE?!!!! Owww! Why don't hackers redirect their energy and creativity to good use solving the world's many woes? Don't they want to live in a nice world, too?

To balance this negativity, I would like to direct you to the Christian Science Monitor's blog which honors 'decent...courageous..selfless' people working hard to make our world a better place at Making a Difference. However, be aware that Making a Difference is a news site, a Dangerous-type site, so consider yourself forewarned.

Let me know how you feel after reading these. I am the one in the corner, humming kumbaya and rocking my computer, because apparently that is all my computer and I can do safely.