(WXYZ) – This week is News Literacy Week and we are committed to emphasizing how you can avoid falling for the wrong information.
There are growing resources to make fact-checking easy for anyone, but some people are reluctant to quickly verify information before sending it to someone else.
Everywhere you look today, the tide of protectionist sentiment is flowing. Now more than ever before, we have realized that the information is not always accurate.
“Information is the basis of all the decisions we make. So basing our decisions and ideas on bad information can distort the democratic process and harm our communities and our families,” Peter Adams told the News Literacy Project. said.
The group is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that provides resources to students and the public to learn how to sort new information.
“The first step I would say is to pay attention to where you are in the information ecosystem. So if you look at standard space news, you at least know that some processes of verification have taken place there, said Adams.
He added that social media news is mostly user-generated content and that you may not know who produced the information.
No matter where the information comes from, it needs to be factually checked. And it’s faster and easier to do.
“Checking the comments can be a great way if something on your nose seems too much, or if it really makes you angry or scared, or if you have a strong emotional response,” he said. : So, look at the comments if you do not see anything in the comments, do a quick google search. You can do this in about 45 seconds. ‘
There is also a growing list of credible websites specifically dedicated to fact checking information.
One of the oldest is Snopes.com. On the home page you will see new headings that have already been researched and actually checked. You can also use the search bar to check something on the main page you have already encountered. Simply type the heading or put it in a question form.
“In the same way as having some self-control with your trash and not throwing it in the street,” he said. ‘If everyone took one minute before sharing something, they were not sure, we could eliminate a lot of pollution in our information streams. ”