易胜博官网

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when news was available on television at 6 a.m., noon and 6 p.m. or via newspaper morning and night.

Compared with the at-your-fingers, immediately available and regularly updated reports we have today, that limited access to information might seem almost medieval. However, this age of social media and innumerable websites has brought with it a danger all its own: the preponderance of access to information has made it more difficult to discern legitimate sources from 鈥渇ake news鈥� 鈥� articles, features and even 鈥渋n-depth reports鈥� based on skewed facts or complete fiction.

For citizens wanting to stay informed and university students conducting research, that poses a big problem.

Enter 易胜博官网鈥檚 Kathrine Aydelott, assistant professor and instruction librarian at Dimond Library, who has compiled an to help distinguish factual reporting from fake news.

鈥淭here鈥檚 such a need right now for recognizing that much of what passes as solid information is, in fact, made up or taken out of context,鈥� she explains. 鈥淎lthough there are lots of similar guides out there, we in the library wanted something that would have our 易胜博官网 name on it and linked to our resources.鈥�

Under the 鈥淗elp! My News is Fake!鈥� header, Aydelott includes several linked questions: 鈥淒id your mother call you to tell you that ?听Did your Facebook feed pop up with an article on ?听Did one of your friends breathlessly tell you that President Trump was going to ?听You might have heard any or all of these stories, but there's one thread connecting all of them: They鈥檙e not true.鈥�

The resource goes on to identify the problem, asking, 鈥淲hy should you care about whether your news is real or fake?鈥� 鈥� with reasons ranging from 鈥測ou deserve the truth鈥� to the damages of fake news and benefits of real news 鈥� and specifies exactly what makes a story fake. Much of the guide is licensed through , making it available for others to reuse to get the word out about fake news, Aydelott adds.

And the reactions so far?

鈥淲e had a great social media response when we announced the guide, and it鈥檚 been one of the top resources linked through Google, so that鈥檚 certainly gratifying,鈥� Aydelott says.

Gathering trustworthy reports in this information age can be very challenging for anyone, Aydelott says, making resources like this important.

鈥淭he traditional ways of producing information: publishing with editors in books and journals, and journalists publishing in newspapers, is much slower than the faster ways of sharing information using social media, video and other web-based forms that we鈥檙e now coming to expect,鈥� she explains. 鈥淩ecognizing how easy it is to both publish and manipulate information should be a cause for great concern. We need to do more to talk about this in classes and create opportunities for students to practice verifying the information they find.鈥�

Want to learn more? Dimond Library is there to help. 鈥淥ur subject librarians welcome opportunities to talk to faculty and students about information literacy and how to evaluate sources,鈥� Aydelott says.

View the guide, .

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