Fake News and Information Literacy

New college students get most of their information about the world around them through social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and the library as well. When I was a freshman at college, I got my information from other students, professors, and the media.

There is a lot of fake news everywhere as we advance without technology in our twenty-first century. If you are not careful or be able to spot fake news, you will have misinformation which is everywhere nowadays. The number one thing I can tell the new students is to be considerate when searching for information, check your source first. Make sure you read the whole story instead of the headlines because it might misguide you. Before you take the news and spread it and then finding out it was fake news, it is important to do more reading and check the source’s other news if they are legit as well. Check if the writer is an expert or has credentials relating to the topic. Also, investigate when did that person write the news and if they make sense. This is how you identify if the source is reliable with the information or not. Information literacy is the ability to read a text, comprehend what it says and means, and then be able to explain it to someone else. Don’t read news from bias websites, and always question the validity of the source.

Informed citizens watch news channels such as CNN to get their information; however, to be truly informed, citizens should also check out different news channels and cross-check what they are saying to determine if the information from multiple news channels agree with each other and to find out if there are any discrepancies.

Informed Citizens should also be aware of the news from the magazines and tabloids that disseminate fake news or have clickbait titles that mislead the readers.