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4 Useful Tips for Spotting a Fake News Story – 2024 Guide

Let’s face it, fake news was always present in this world of ours. However, the concept of fabricating fake news can be described as a new concept. We can see that in the last couple of years, many people have been pointing out that fake news are responsible for a lot of bad things that happen throughout the world. So, creating a filter that will help you discard all the news that appears fake to you, due to the many facts and statistics they have is an absolute must.

Either that, or you need to decide on the sources you are going to use, and not getting crucial information from the ones that have been established as manufacturers of fake news. Thankfully, there are still some credible sources. If you are interested in checking one of these, take a look at WantNews. You will quickly see that this is a credible source, without a doubt. Even though it is pretty hard to know what are fake news for certain, you can recognize some of them by using several things that can help you in this process.

As you can presume, the highest percentage of this news appears pretty credible most of the time. So, it’s not as easy for everyone to recognize all of these in a matter of seconds. Even though fake news is represented in a way that makes you think about them as accurate ones, you will be able to establish an opinion about a particular occurrence. Therefore, we’ve decided to provide you with a couple of tips you can use for spotting a fake news story. Surely, it doesn’t get any easier, but there are some things that you can see pretty clearly. Without further ado, let’s take at what we had prepared for you.

Don’t Rush to Trust Search Engines

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As all of us know, we cannot trust every information we receive from other people. We are pretty sure that many people are not aware that search engines are able to lie sometimes. It goes without saying that this is intentional. But it doesn’t mean that the results you will get on the first page of search engines mean that they are credible enough. Let’s be honest, that only means these websites have done proper SEO optimization.

Even though there is some quality to their content, that doesn’t mean it’s credible enough. In fact, these can be filled with a plethora of fake news that just waits to be opened. Search engines are working on algorithms. So, there are no real people who are checking all this information before they are ranked. So, you need to avoid making rushed decisions by trusting the first page results. You should know better than that.

Check the Sources

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It goes without saying that checking the source is the first thing you should do after you’ve read some news. That way you will be able to establish an opinion about how trustworthy this news really is. Your job is pretty easy in this regard if there are any possible sources you can take a look at. If there are none, and you are interested to find out whether this news is true, you can be sure that you will need to conduct thorough research before you can find out how trustworthy it really is.

In the case where you have some sources added as links, you will be able to check these links and see how credible these sites are. For example, when talking about the most credible news sites, we would point out Forbes and Business Insider. If the article is referring to some random blog or some newspapers who are not known for their credibility, you can be sure that the chances of this news being false are pretty big. That doesn’t mean it is, but this is one of the ways you can determine it.

Double-check the Author

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Almost every credible website has a photo and the full name of the author either at the beginning of the article or at the end. Even though this is the case, that doesn’t mean that we are talking about a real person. So, you need to be smart and try to track the work of this author. In sites like Business Insider, you will be able to find the author’s other work on the website. At the same time, if you enter a proper query into your search engine, you will see if there are some other works done by this author.

Even though all these elements are present and you can find some other works of the author in question, that doesn’t mean we are talking about a real person and a credible journalist. After then, you should try to find profiles on social media like LinkedIn, where you can find a plethora of different interesting elements about the person’s career. You will see his education and history of employment. We’ve provided you with an insight into how you can conduct thorough research, it’s up to you if you have enough patience and time for it.

Consult an Expert

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We are pretty sure that every person who is hardworking doesn’t have enough time to invest in debunking fake news. However, if you take a personal interest in one of these, the last and ultimate thing you need to do is to consult an expert in the field that’s needed. There are a plethora of different websites that you can use to check all of the news you suspect of being fake. At the same time, if the article is talking about particular expertise, you can always consult an expert, why not?

That way, you will get the basic info and see if that news is actually possible. Surely, if there is a talk about something that requires an expert, many people will not notice the small things that make the difference. These small details are the most important of them all. Therefore, you should consult some experts and see if this news is actually true or they are complete lies.

About Ronald Lamumbe