Presentation to seniors at the Robert & Pearl Seymour Center in Chapel Hill, March 2018. Addresses how to identify accurate news sources and confirm which news stories are credible.

1. “Fake News” & News Literacy
Imagefromhttps://pixabay.com/en/fake-news-media-disinformation-2355686/
Stephanie Willen Brown
Librarian @ UNC’s School of Media & Journalism
swbrown@unc.edu

2. Have You Shared False Info?
Imagefromhttps://flic.kr/p/drMsHS

3. Would You Share This?
http://espnsports.news/nfl/s
tory/_/id/68393572/dan-
snyder-honors-native-
americans-changes-team-
mascot-to-washington-
redhawks

4. Not much more to say, this is what happens when flowers get nuclear birth
defects
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Would You Share This?

5. http://www.snopes.com/nuclear-mutant-daisies/
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6. Hoax Propaganda Disinformation
Sponsored
Content
Fake
News
False
ContextClickbait
Satire /
Parody
Opinion /
Editorials
Mistakes 
Corrected
News Typology: from Hoax to
Corrections

7. 8

8. What is the Solution?

9. 10
Would You Share This?
So while people around the world
continue to be advised against
becoming pregnant due to the
ongoing spread of the Zika virus, a
group of Argentine physicians are
challenging this notion, and the
overwhelming link between Brazil’s
microcephaly and the 70-year-old
disease. They believe that, rather
than Zika having caused a rise in
microcephaly cases, it is really a
toxic larvicide that’s been
introduced into Brazil’s water
supplies that’s to blame.

10. Confirm, Confirm, Confirm

11. AllSides.com
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12. Fake News in History: Great Moon Hoax
“...A series of six articles that were published in The Sun, a New York newspaper,
beginning on August 25, 1835, about the supposed discovery of life and even
civilization on the Moon. The discoveries were falsely attributed to Sir John
Herschel, one of the best-known contemporary astronomers of that time.
“The story was advertised on August 21, 1835, as an upcoming feature allegedly
reprinted from The Edinburgh Courant.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Moon_Hoax
http://hoaxes.org/text/display/the_great_moon_hoax_of_1835_text/
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13. 14

14. Steps to Avoid Sharing False
Info.
1. Go through the checklist
• Emotions = skeptical
• Check comments & advertising for potential bias
2. Confirm information with credible sources
• Snopes
• Google the title of the article, or use keywords
“cause zika virus larvicide”
3. Confirm information with multiple sources
Imagefromhttps://pixabay.com/en/keyboard-computer-facebook-blue-597007/
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15. More Information
• Links and checklists at:
http://guides.lib.unc.edu/mejo153/checkingFacts
• Stephanie’s News Literacy Links:
https://pinboard.in/u:CogSciLibrarian/t:NewsLiteracy/
• AllSides.com offers news coverage from the left, right, and
center. Site uses an algorithm to assign bias ratings to
news & other issues.
See also: https://www.allsides.com/bias/bias-ratings
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