(upbeat music)
- Do you remember the weekly world news?
They used to have great headlines.
That kinda stuff that was plainly made up.
Well, it's gotten much more difficult to spot
a fake news story than it used
to be thanks to the digital age.
You don't believe me?
Just stick around.
- ♫Ban this gay smut
♫I'm not racist but...
♫Car crime knife crime
♫Hang-the-cheating-wife-time
♫Pop stars take drugs
♫Teen boys wear hoods
♫Sports stars have sex
♫Bears in woods
♫Brussels politicians want to stop
♫us drinking english ale♫
- Some sources are known to be unreliable.
Take for example, the beloved Daily Mail.
In the UK, the Daily Mail newspaper is a
middle-brow tabloid that generally prints factual articles,
but you know, from a conservative slant.
Online though, it's a complete free-for-all.
The Mail online prints whatever they want to,
basically anytime they want to.
And a lot of that stuff gets
shared as real, actual articles.
This is really saying something because
in 2014, the Daily Mail online
was the most visited newspaper website in the world.
Now The Mail online does publish stories
from the print version of the newspaper,
so it's not like every article
on the site is totally illegitimate.
But, there are websites that have
proliferated lately, that are dedicated
to completely made-up news.
Like the Empire News, Empire Sports,
Huzlers, National Report, The Daily Currant,
the very legitimate sounding
Wyoming Institute of Technology,
and the World News Daily Report.
- I don't know how to run a newspaper Mr. Fetch
I just try everything I can think of.
- Charles you know perfectly well.
There's not the slightest proof that
this Armada is off the Jersey Coast.
- Hello Mr. Bernstein. - Excuse me Mr.
- Can you prove it isn't?
- Say you're on a news site and they
have an article that interests you,
something sensational sounding but
incredulous like, "US President suffers heart attack."
Well, this could be true, but a quick scan
of the other articles on the site will give
you an idea of whether you should believe it or not.
If the other articles include headlines like:
"Grandmother mates with croc,"
or "Nine year old accidentally discovers cure for cancer,"
you should possibly be wary.
Of course the other headlines might not be
quite as ridiculous, but if you take a
good look at the stories, you'll get a sense
of the seriousness of the publication.
Which is a good indication of it's integrity.
Facebook is another place where dubious
stories get shared or promoted,
so look twice at the site they came from
before hitting that share button.
(upbeat music)
Let's go back to that
"US president suffers heart attack" story.
If you're still not sure, head on over to the site
of a reputable news outlet like CNN or New York Times.
If they're reporting that same story, it's
probably a good indication it's for real.
But, be sure to check their sources too,
because they can be lazy as well.
If they're all citing that original
article you're seeking the providence of
to begin with, maybe it isn't real after all.
Case in point, In January 2014,
The Daily Mail ran a photo of
smoggy Beijing in the early morning.
A giant rectangular TV screen in the foreground
showed a beautiful sunrise.
The story underneath was titled "China starts
"televising the sunrise on giant TV screens
"because Beijing is so clouded in smog."
Well, Time Magazine and CBS picked up
the story, crediting The Daily Mail as the source.
But they soon issued a correction when,
after finally doing their own reporting,
they discovered it was a fabrication.
The TV screen existed, but the sunrise shot
was part of a tourism ad.
(upbeat music)
One of the easier ways to spot a
suspect story is if they're located
on a news site with a strange domain name.
For example, if a story originates on a site
ending in .RU, you can end right there.
Other untrustworthy sites will try to
imitate a reputable well-known website
by incorporating it into it's own url.
For example, using NBC as part of it's url,
like www.nbc-real-news.com.
Another trick?
Using nearly the same url as a popular site.
Omitting a letter or two, or misspelling the name.
Very long, complex domain names
are another sign something might be amiss.
Remember, anyone can pay for a domain name.
So now you're equipped, and you'll never
look like a fool to your friends on Facebook again.
And if you want to hone your skills even further,
you can go to howstuffworks.com,
and search for our article
"10 ways to spot a fake news story."
(piano key)