Information Literacy

Professor Claire Wardle of Brown University has defined the categories of mid- and disinformation that we see most commonly today based on the format of the information, the way it is spread, and the motivations of whoever created it -> 

1. Satire or parody - this is material that was not meant to be taken as fact, it's meant to be funny, and harm is incidental
   • The Onion is an example of parody material. It's a fake news website that is related to current events but is entirely made up and is not meant to be taken seriously. 
2. False connection - when the headline doesn't match the content, this can be on purpose or from ineptitude
   • Clickbait headlines that are meant to grab your interest and take you to another site, "you won't believe this..." taking you to a site that is selling you something
3. Misleading content - possibly true information but used in a way that creates a false impression of a person or idea
   • Think of when someone posts a picture on social media where they are surrounded by plants and they're pretending to be in the jungle  
4. False context - true data but in a manipulated context 
   • An example of this is when there is a picture associated with a story going around the internet that later turns out to be from some other place or from years ago but is meant to be proof of the claim being made right now. Biased news outlets will post pictures of explosions or people fighting and say that it happened this week in Seattle, but an image search shows that the event in the picture is from five years ago in Costa Rica. 
5. Imposter content - impersonation of a trusted information source
   • Sometimes bad actors will mockup a fake website meant to look like a real website in order to give you false information without making you suspicious. Look for misspelled logos or domain names that don't match the website you are looking at. 
6. Manipulated content - true information but changed or rearranged until it's not true 
   • You may have seen this when a photo is cropped so that the interpretation is misleading or false. Like cropping people out of a photo to make it look like someone is alone when in a crowd. 
7. Fabricated content - just completely made up
   • Some unreliable organizations pose as news distributors and put out completely false information, not based in truth or misrepresenting some facts, just all the way false. Think of tabloid headlines about alien babies or an Elvis Presley sighting. 

Source: Fake news. It's complicated.. By Claire Wardle, First Draft News… | by First Draft | First Draft Footnotes | Medium

The Smell Test

S – Source -> Where did this information come from?

M – Motivation -> Why is this source trying to give me this information?

E – Evidence -> Did the source offer evidence that can be verified to prove that the information is true?

L – Logic -> Does this make sense if I stop to think about it?

L – Left Out -> Is there information that was left out to push the reader in a certain direction?

Source: Don’t Be Fooled: Use the SMELL Test To Separate Fact from Fiction Online