Journalists were once respected for their ability to gather news. As cadets, they learn to question everything; Research, interview, fact-check, cover every aspect and get to the heart of the story.

Professional journalists still possess these skills. The vast majority of people who enter this profession do so because they have a burning desire.

An ardent pursuit of truth and enlightenment. dark corners Sometimes they are willing to risk their lives to tell you these stories.

Unfortunately, well-researched, investigative, and fact-based stories now vie for space alongside editorials/opinions, satire, inflammatory articles, advertisements, rumors/tabloids, fake news, and conspiracies separate proven facts from fiction.

If you want unbiased, only real news, here are some tips to help you find out the real thing about fake news.

Look for similarities.

Media is a competitive sport. All media want stories first, and all journalists want their Watergate moment. When a good story comes out, Mainstream Media (MSM) has the technology, resources, and staff to process and spread the word quickly.

For this reason alone, mainstream news services should be your first stop in your quest for truth. Note that I said “news service”. Let me explain.

The sad reality is that very few traditional media remain objective and fair, most of which are political. Editorials, parsers, and outspoken commentators leave us in no doubt as to which direction the pendulum is moving.

If you focus on news directly from these sources, rather than noisy panelists, analysts or commentators, you will find common ground. If the headlines from Fox, MSNBC, The Washington Post, New York Post, NPR, and BBC all report the same basic information, you can be sure they are correct.

To find common ground, try not to get all the news from one place or only from sites that fit your beliefs. Get in the habit of looking at what different stores say, even the ones you don’t like. an announcer in his feed; They are generally the most impartial.

Find common ground to form your opinion based on facts. One site that collects and identifies news on the left, center and right is Allsides.com.The site also has a helpful chart to quickly see which direction the mainstream media are heading.

What if it isn’t covered by the mainstream media?

You may have seen headlines on social media that said, “This is what the MSM didn’t tell you.” I can assure you that if all the mainstream media did not cover history, this almost certainly would not have happened. Pizzagate is one such story.

Can you imagine the media reaction when they first found out about the secret pedophile network? They will have to work overtime to create a sensation, expose pedophiles and eliminate the perpetrators. Their investigation led nowhere.

There is no evidence to support this story they have no choice but to throw it away.

Unfortunately, fake news sites have published the pedophile story as real without proof — CNN, Fox News,

The Washington Post, New York Observer, and many other major news outlets report that the story is nothing more than a conspiracy theory (a perfect example of the similarity). However, pizzagate has amassed millions of online views and continues to spread throughout the conspiracy land.

Go straight to the source.

If you are reading an article or viewing an online document with a link to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), or any company, go directly to that organization’s website to check what you are creating yourself, or contact with them.

Most large organizations have press offices, so they can verify the authenticity of the document. If an author’s name has been added to the story, check the author’s login information. Where do they work?

A quick Google search for authors can shed light on the true origins of a story. Note that conspiracy theorists often use official documents with recognizable logos to advance their goal; however, the details it contains are often erroneous.

Other red flags that it’s a phony

If the story is full of typos or exclamation marks, chances are the reporter didn’t write it. If you are unsure, run history on one of the authentication sites listed below.

Check the history url. This article may have been published in The Washington Post, but does the URL take you to the newspaper’s website? If you find yourself on a site with fake news or a site with a lot of pop-ups, you can safely assume that the article is fake.

If you’re still unsure, go straight to the website of the alleged publication and look around — does this story exist?

Pay attention to words such as commercial content, sponsor/partner content, or advertisements; These are not news, these are fake content articles that major brands have paid to appear as news.

Building credibility for brands, Unfortunately, this does not greatly affect the reputation of news outlets. The person who first came up with this ridiculous idea probably worked in the sales department, not in the news department. Pay attention to satirical news sites.

These are comedy sites for entertainment purposes only. They use humor, sarcasm, exaggeration, and derision to make savvy readers laugh. Unfortunately, when satirical stories fall into the hands of uninformed people, their exaggerated comments end up being spread as truth. Some of the more popular satire sites include:

The Onion

On the ‘About’ page of its website, The Onion describes its publication as follows: (spot the sarcasm)

World News Daily Report

The popular phrase “Where the truth doesn’t matter” is also a kind of giveaway, but World News Daily Report articles appear regularly on social media. The joke is guaranteed.

Satire news sites differ from fake news sites in that they do not seek to trick the audience into thinking that their material is genuine. As Aaron Hagee McKay, a former writer for the satirical news site The Beaverton, told the University of Toronto Magazine: “ Satire plays a role with its audience; fake news to your audience. “

National Report

National Report describes itself as “America’s worst independent news source.” You might think this is an obvious sign, but stories from National Report still hit social media as fact.

Fact-checking sites

If you don’t have time to look at suspicious stories or social media posts, visit an online fact-checking site. They can tell you if a story is true or false and back up their findings with compelling evidence. They work in the field, so you don’t need to.

Four of the most popular fact-checking websites are listed below:

Reuters

Reuters news agency is the world’s largest provider of multimedia news. It has been in operation since 1851. The Reuters fact-checking service provides clarifications on current related news as they occur.

Snopes

This is my personal goto. Snopes.com has been searching for facts since the internet became a ubiquitous household item in 1995 — if you can’t find what you’re looking for, write it down and Snopes will search history for you.

FactCheck.org

When it comes to American politics, FactCheck.org is the place to go if you want to check the factual accuracy of politicians — their speeches, interviews, statements, TV commercials, and press releases.

Media Bias/Fact Check

The Media Fact / Facilitation Checking site is useful if you want to check the legitimacy or political bias of a post.

Enter the name of the website you want to check and the bias/credential check will determine if it comes from a legitimate or questionable source. , fake science/conspiracy page or satirical post.

Fact Check Images

An image is said to be worth a thousand words, but these words are meaningless if the image in question is in doubt. Fortunately, there are sites that specialize in image searches.

TinEye

Upload an image to Canada’s TinEye and it will scan the 48.8 billion images in its index to find the best match. If the photo in question has been modified, the original photo will be shown in the TinEye search results.

Google Images

Google Images’ reverse image search feature is one of the best tools for verifying image legitimacy. You can upload an image or search for the image you want using keywords. If the image you are viewing is not correct, find the opposite image, it will generate the original image.

Use Google effectively

When researching the authenticity of a story, Google can be a great tool if you know how to use it. Here are some tips to help you improve your search performance on Google:

Use the colon (:) symbol for specific sites

If you see an article presumably from a specific news site, you can quickly check it using the colon (:) on your keyboard and the official web address of that site.

For example, if you want to look at a Joe Biden story related to Kabul on CNN, search for Joe Biden Kabul Site: cnn.com. In this case, you will only see results from cnn.com.

Quotation marks

Enter words or a phrase into the search bar and Google will search web pages that contain any combination of those words. However, if you are looking for an exact phrase, sentence, or quote, enclose it in quotation marks (“enter your search like this”) and Google will search for your exact query.

Tabs

There are tabs at the top of each search result page (All, Images, Maps, News, Videos, More). If you’re looking specifically for news, click on the news tab and Google will highlight all news. related to your search.

Plus (+) and minus (-) symbols

Google the word “bronco” and your search results page will be filled with images and links to SUVs. This is not very useful if you are looking for information about horses. To narrow your search, place a minus sign () right before the word you don’t want to see in the results.

For example, typing bronco-car will automatically remove links. Conversely, you can use the plus sign to add words that should appear in your search. For example, if you type bronco + horse, the result will be much more accurate.

Conclusion

We all have political views and leanings, but when it comes to figuring out the truth about the news, it’s best to leave those personal biases at the door and look for common ground. Learn to recognize the difference between news and opinions.

The media has traditional local journalists who also use columnists, commentators, and analysts to voice their opinions and interpret news based on left or right media bias. Remember, opinions are not facts.

If you hear about a story that “is not covered in the mainstream media,” it is probably not true. Every journalist needs a moment like Karl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. They won’t hide a great story. If you haven’t seen it in the media, it probably didn’t.

Finally, before posting anything on social media, be sure to read the headlines and check the facts. If they seem outrageous, dig deeper. It’s okay to be offended, but if the source of your anger is fiction, your anger may be wrong.

Mainstream media are by no means perfect or coherent. It is a machine with many moving parts and people, including messengers. Daily news and always keep you updated. Believe it or not, there are respected journalists, this is a fact.