Outsmarting Fake News: Shawano Public Library Workshop

What Is Fake News?

Cool article with helpful charts: Fake News. It's Complicated

According to the article Deception Detection for News, there are three main categories of "deceptive" news:

  • Serious fabrications
  • Large-scale hoaxes
  • News satire

The authors also point out that "genuine" news sources can contain "finger pointing":

In political events, territorial conflicts, wars or other current controversies, news channels or individual reporters may be accused of partisanship, blindness, or straight out lies. Such situations do not meet the intentional lying criterion, since reporting is likely to be consistent with the reporter’s beliefs, worldview, biases, or affiliations. 

Sounds like what we discussed in the Bias section, doesn't it? :)


According to Merrimack College media professor Melissa Zimdars, who created a list of False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and/or Satirical “News” Sourcesthere are four broad categories of fake news:






From Indiana University East Campus Library Fake News Guide

Why Should I Care?


  3. Fake news can hurt you, and a lot of other people.  Purveyors of fake and misleading medical advice like Mercola.com and NaturalNews.com help perpetuate myths like HIV and AIDS aren't related, or that vaccines cause autism.  These sites are heavily visited and their lies are dangerous.

From What is Wrong With Fake News (UTA Libraries)

How Fake News Goes Viral: A Case Study

New York Times Case Study
