Misinformation and fake news

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words.  Infographics help people to understand complex concepts through the use of visual data, charts and statistics.

International Federation of Library Associations & Institutions: How to Spot Fake News

International Federation of Library Association & Institutions: How to Spot Fake News - Covid Edition

Compound Interest: A Rough Guide to Spotting Bad Science

EAVI Media Literacy for Citizenship: Beyond 'Fake News' 10 Types of Misleading News

ProQuest Guided Worksheet: How To Identify Fake News in 10 Steps

Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency: Disinformation Stops With You

Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency: Disinformation Stops With You Infographics Set

EasyBib: Evaluating A News Article

VisualCapitalist: How To Spot Fake News

Sage: How to Spot Fake News

GroundViews: How to Spot False News

GroundViews: 10 Types of Mis- and Disinformation

Madison County, NY: Spot and Stop Misinformation

NewseumED: Is This Story Shareworthy?

National Institute of Health (NIH): How Research Works: Explaining the Process of Science 

News Literacy Project / Checkology: Ten Questions for Fake News Detection

UNESCO: Visual Resources UNESCO produced visuals, graphic and social media messages to counter disinformation, fight discrimination, and promote best practices.

 

Teaching people to critically evaluate the accuracy of information and sources can reduce the influence of misinformation and the likelihood that people will share misinformation.

There is emerging evidence that it is possible to pre-emptively debunk, or pre-bunk, misinformation before false beliefs or ways of thinking have a chance to take hold. People can be ‘inoculated’ against misinformation.

There are many reliable fact-checking groups such as the Associated Press, Reuters, USA Today, the Washington Post, PolitiFact, and FactCheck.org, including ones that focus especially on health information, such as ScienceUpFirst,  iHealthFacts (Ireland), Health Feedback.org (France) and Retraction Watch.   These sites attempt to verify scientific or health claims in the media  by contacting subject matter experts who provide credible references to recently published, credible scientific literature that supports their analyses.

Fact Checking Sites

• FactCheck.org: From the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, this is a nonprofit, nonpartisan site dedicated to reducing the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics.
• SciCheck.org From FactCheck.org it focuses exclusively on false and misleading scientific claims that are made by partisans to influence public policy.
• PolitiFact/HealthCheck::  A partnership with Kaiser Health News to help you find the truth in politics.  Politifact is a nonpartisan site featuring the “truth-o-meter,” which assigns levels of truth to political statements.
• FAIR: A national media watchdog group, FAIR specializes in critiquing media bias and censorship, with an emphasis on promoting diverse, dissenting media viewpoints.
• OpenSecrets: From the Center for Responsive Politics, a research group that tracks the influence of money in American politics, OpenSecrets features reporting, data, and academic resources on money in politics.
• Snopes: The original fact-checking and myth-busting site, Snopes is an independent organization that fact-checks any story worth checking.
• Chrome Fake News Detector Simple extension that shows an alert when you visit a site known for spreading fake news.
• ScienceUpFirst: National initiative that works with a collective of independent scientists, researchers, health care experts and science communicators. 
• iHealthFacts: A resource where the public can quickly and easily check the reliability of a health claim circulated by social media. 
• Retraction Watch: Reports on retractions of peer-reviewed scientific journal articles.
• Health Feedback: Health Feedback is a worldwide network of scientists sorting fact from fiction in health and medical media coverage

 

The National Academy of Medicine held a forum in 2021 on identifying credible sources of health information and came up with a set of principles for sources providing health information:

• Science-Based: Sources should provide information that is consistent with the best scientific evidence available at the time and meet standards for the creation, review, and presentation of scientific content.
• Objective: Sources should take steps to reduce the influence of financial and other forms of conflict of interest (COI) or bias that might compromise or be perceived to compromise the quality of the information they provide. 
• Transparent and Accountable: Sources should disclose the limitations of the information they provide, as well as conflicts of interest, content errors, or procedural missteps. At the frontiers of understanding, scientific knowledge changes over time as more evidence becomes available and as existing evidence is analyzed in new ways. … To maintain credibility, sources must clearly acknowledge the limitations of the information they share so that consumers can reach fully informed conclusions.

Evaluating Online Information

Know the Science.(National Center for Complementary & Integrative Health). Provides tools to help better understand complex scientific topics that relate to health research so that people can be discerning about what they hear and read and make well-informed decisions about their health. Know the Science features a variety of materials including interactive modules, quizzes, and videos. 

Evaluating Health Information. (MedlinePlus). Information on how to evaluation health information found online.  Includes additional resources.

Evaluating Internet Health Information: A Tutorial From the National Library of Medicine: tutorial teaches you how to evaluate the health information you find on the Internet.

Understanding Medical Research : Information from MedlinePlus on understanding medical research. Having a basic understanding of what medical research is can help identify quality health information.

Media Landscapes: Disinformation/Misinformation (Minnesota Library Professional Development Network). Series of webinars presented in 2021-2022 on misinformation/disinformation.

Fact Checking Tips

 "How can I spot misinformation about the coronavirus and COVID-19?" by the Gerstein Science Information Centre, University of Toronto Libraries used under CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0/modified from original.

Fred Fact Doesn't Fall for Fake News . Be More Like Fred: Here are 7 Tips to get you started. (2018). International Fact Checking Network. (fact checking tips in cartoon format)

Kington, R., S. Arnesen, W-Y. S. Chou, S. Curry, D. Lazer, and A. Villarruel. 2021. Identifying Credible Sources of Health Information in Social Media: Principles and Attributes. NAM Perspectives. Discussion Paper, National Academy of Medicine, Washington, DC.