Media Literacy & the Problem with Fake News: Home

Still not sure? The library is happy to help you figure it out.

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Five C's of Critical Consuming (John Spencer)

• Context - Look at the context of the article. When was it written? Where does it come from? Have the events changed since then? Is there any new information that could change your perspective?
• Credibility - Check the credibility of the source. Does the site have a reputation for journalistic integrity? Does the author cite credible sources? Or is it satirical? Is it on a list of fake news sites? Is it actually an advertisement posing as a real news story?
• Construction - Analyze the construction of the article. What is the bias? Are there any loaded words? Any propaganda techniques? Any omissions that you should look out for? Can you distinguish between the facts and opinions? Or is it simply all speculation?
• Corroboration - Corroborate the information with other credible news sources. Make sure it’s not the only source making the claim. If it is, there’s a good chance it’s actually not true.
• Compare - Compare it to other news sources to get different perspectives. Find other credible sources from other areas of the ideological or political spectrum to provide nuance and get a bigger picture of what’s actually happening.

If you come across a fact from a source that you don't know, you can check whether it's true on one of these websites. This is worthwhile both for the research you do for school and before sharing information on social media.

Not sure if that image of Hillary Clinton with an alien is real? Here are a couple of tools to help you find the image source.