In our society today we are able to have access to any news we desire right at our fingertips. Through the click of a button and a short period of time scrolling on the internet or social media we can be exposed to an overwhelming abundance of news reports. However social media, the internet, and hyperpartisanship today lead to a lot of inaccurate thoughts and reports masquerading as trustworthy news to the average citizen in our society. Therefor, though the easy access to news today is great, the information we receive is often misleading so we must find a way to make sure what we see online is trustworthy and verifiable and that we are not just blindly accepting what we read as facts.
The solution to this growing problem is to make sure all readers read like fact checkers by analyzing, questioning, and evaluating the news that they read. When we are exposed to an article online we must read it and comprehend it, but not blindly accept it as the truth. As a reader today we must break down the information we are given, starting with pointing out the main claim of the article that can be objectively verified. Once you see something that claims to be a fact, research it with as many primary facts on the topic you can find, and decide whether these sources uphold or refute the claim that is being made.
This may be the best way to fact check news on the internet, however it is not always the most convenient or efficient way. There are simpler steps we can take on a day to day basis to attempt to eliminate the amount of inaccurate claims we believe. First pay attention to the URL of the site you are on; established news organizations will have a standard URL due to the fact that they own them. Also, some endings tend to be more reliable than others such as .gov. Research the leaders within the organization you are reading from. Who wrote the article? Do they tend to write more opinionated or fact based pieces? These are questions you can easily ask yourself when breaking down news articles. Check comments on viral news. A lot of misleading news articles become widespread quickly because of their tendencies to have dramatized headings, however if millions of people are claiming that it is not accurate then you should pay attention to those comments and realize it is probably untrustworthy news. Overall the biggest way we can make sure what we are exposed to online is trustworthy is to be active readers, and listeners. We must question what we hear, evaluate the sources ourselves, and never blindly trust what you read without looking further into it for yourself.