Examine the news sources. Journalists follow a set of ethics guidelines and will name their sources, except in rare cases to protect a person’s safety. Credible articles will name sources and those sources will be experts on the topic they are discussing. Get your news from a variety of places. See if the information you are looking at is confirmed by other sites or publications. If only one news outlet is reporting something, that could be a red flag. When you see your friends and family share disinformation, speak up. Provide accurate information from credible sources, but be kind and don’t insult people’s intelligence. Never repeat the lie, because then you emphasize the disinformation instead of what’s right.
Want to learn more about how to recognize and guard against disinformation? ASU offers a free online class, “Mediactive: How to Participate in Your Digital World,” that teaches how to spot disinformation, how to assess claims and sources, how news media operates and more.
