Freya Harrison
YEAR 7
A RARE and brand-new species of bear was found today in the depths of the Amazon Rainforest.
Earlier this week, a young male yellow panda was found crawling through the bushes to the local villages looking for what is guessed to be food. Instead of waiting for expert authorities to arrive young girl ‘Lexi Taylor’ began to search the trees in the deeper parts of the forest and struck gold when she found the female panda, named after her, higher up in a kapok tree. The child told reporters it was, ‘cutest pandabear ever!’
All of this is a lie. And by that, I mean fake news. With how advanced social media is at the moment, fake news is an ongoing threat to children and adults alike. People create fake media all the time for pleasure or to create panic or push a certain point of view. It can be dangerous to spread untrue information and we need to know how to identify it. It is just a matter of finding it out. If you follow these few steps, you will definitely be able to tell the difference and keep yourself and others safe from foraged news. First of all, have you heard of it before? Has your friend or family member mentioned this story? Does it look or even sound fake: look at the photos are they edited? What about grammar is it incorrect or is punctuation overused? Look carefully for who wrote or produced the piece. Check if the images don’t look right. Another thing is are the quoted people real: as far as you know the girl ‘Lexi’ might be my cousin! Don’t believe everything you read!! And finally, has anyone else reported it. If you follow these steps, you are guaranteed to spot fake news.
1. Story – what is it trying to say? Can this piece of news be found elsewhere and is it reported in the same way?
2. Emotions – how does the story make them feel? Fake news tries to manipulate people’s feelings to make them click. Beware of the “woah” feeling and pause before sharing. It might even be a joke!
3. Picture – is it fake or out of context? Check with a reverse image search to find where it’s from originally
4. Author – what’s the URL? Check the address bar at the top – most trusted URLs end with “.com”, “.co.uk”, “.net”, “.gov”, “.org”, “.mil” and “.edu”. If not, it might be fake. Are there any experts named or quoted?
5. Shares – even if it’s shared by a friend or famous person, it doesn’t mean it’s correct.
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