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From The News Literacy Project: “Provoking outrage remains a common goal of misinformation purveyors. People are generally better at detecting misinformation when they slow down and engage their logical, critical faculties. But strong emotions quickly circumvent these higher-order abilities and cause people to like and share online content too quickly. Outrage is one of the most effective emotional targets that purveyors of misinformation can use to get their messages to spread widely. Whether it’s claims that wildly exaggerate runaway gas prices or inflation, or posts designed to galvanize antipathy for a particular public figure, outrage continues to prove itself a major vulnerability in people’s information defenses.”

Be careful about the “facts” shared on the Internet that are not based on real science. Nutrition advice can drive sales for a “nutritionist” touting a diet or detox or supplements but waste your money or actually be unsafe. Many states don’t require formal training for nutritionists, so that title can be used freely. Always check credentials to make sure they are registered dietitians or physicians. Even then, it is a good idea to corroborate their findings or recommendations with others in their field.

Here is the article that describes the fact checking process that The Atlantic magazine uses.

Reputable ones – yes. How do we know a fact checking service is reputable and trustworthy? The sites that have a good track record for doing their job very well and have a reputation to uphold are the ones you will want to use. Some of the best are listed on this website’s Resources page. False fact checkers exist on social media and fringe apps like Telegram! You can avoid getting confused by using the high-quality fact checkers listed on my Resources page or in this link to the college of Staten Island the City University of New York Library. Many maintain non partisanship by employing members of both American political parties, or in the the case of Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network, “staffers cannot be members of political parties nor publicly support candidates for elected office”.

Russians claim Ukrainian forces are staging deaths and use footage from a TV series to “prove” that. Read the article posted on the News Literacy Project page.

Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist in New York. Here is his thought provoking article.

How do you know if a photo or video posted online is true or false? Here are some examples from a BBC disinformation team member.

Grad students are shining a light on disinformation and conspiracy theories. They illustrate some of the persuasive techniques that are frequently used. Click here for the article

I highly recommend signing up for the News Literacy Project’s email updates on current news stories, Internet posts, and Social Media trends. Go to the Resources page on this website and click on News Literacy Project or click here. Scroll to the bottom of that page for the email sign up. You will be glad you did.