How to spot ‘fake news’: 6 media literacy tips

Understanding how the term "fake news" gets used is an important part of learning how to spot the content that isn't useful to us. A lot of what gets called "fake news" falls under the larger term of information pollution.

Information pollution: When our information supply gets contaminated with stuff like ultra-biased content, spam email, sensationalized stories, propaganda, "fake news," and much more unhelpful content that makes it harder to find the real information we need.

When you encounter a questionable media item that you think is "fake news," the first step is to identify what type of content you are actually dealing with. Each has different best practices for responding to it. Just like sorting your recycling can make it easier to process, sorting the different content types can make it easier for us to process our information environments.

Now we will break down two content types that frequently get labeled as "fake news." We'll provide you with some easy techniques for spotting and avoiding content that is designed to scam, trick or manipulate you.

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