Fake News and Content Evaluation

Fake News is a provable lie (or manipulated photo/video/audio) which is presented as factually accurate.

This is not to be confused with:

mislead the consumer, for example:
- during a political campaign
- regarding health information
- in an attempt to influence a company's stock
- in order to smear a person's reputation
produce clickbait, which generates revenue for a website or statistics on social media

are there any sources cited in the news item?
- if so, do these sources exist? Look them up and determine if claims made in the story match the actual source(s)
- consider what information or perspective(s) may be absent which would make the story more convincing
consider where the news came from
- look at the URL: does it appear legitimate? If you searched the web for that site's name, does it lead to the same URL? (Sometimes fake sites will slightly modify a well-known site's URL)
- read through the 'About Us' page online
- review some of the other news published by the outlet: does it seem legitimate and can you find similar news items from other sources?
- is there an author/reporter? If so, see what else they have written
for more insight, see search results for fake news on Journalist's Resource (Harvard Kennedy School)
and explore this Fake News Game, designed to simulate spreading fake news so that players can better-recognize how it is done

Saudi Arabian media attack Canada's human rights record making numerous false claims. For more information, see:

Archived Web Content -- City of Ottawa examples: Ottawa Confederation Line Archived Jan. 15, 2018; and City of Ottawa: Planning and Development Archived Feb. 6, 2018
End of Term Web Archive -- documenting U.S. Government web content prior to changes of administration (beginning 2008)
Registry of Canadian Government Information Digitization Projects -- digitized government documents
TinEye -- find where an image has been used online and determine if (and how) it has been manipulated
Wayback Machine -- see snapshots of web pages as they appeared in the past