Research & Subject Guides: Fake News: Check your own claim!

Practice makes perfect

Use the strategies in this guide to check your own claim, or use one of the claims listed below for practice. Remember, fake news articles may fall under multiple categories and might even mix in a few facts amid their falsehoods.

Quick and simple debunking exercise

Compare these two links. Which one do you think is true? Why or why not?
1 - Eat This Not That: Shocking Facts About Farmed Salmon
2 - Washington State Department of Health: Farmed vs. Wild Salmon

Select a claim to examine

Food Babe: How Food Companies Exploit Americans
This article claims that US consumers ingest chemicals that people in other countries don't. Is that true? What else does this article imply?
Spoon University: Drinking Tequila Could Help You Lose Weight
Can you find enough evidence to prove or disprove this claim?
Complex: Weed Isn’t Making You Dumb Says Study
Up for the challenge of proving or disproving this one?

Other tips for fact checking and avoiding fake news

When you open up a news article in your browser, open a second, empty tab. Use that second window to look up claims, author credentials and organizations that you come across in the article.
Fake news spans across all kinds of media - printed and online articles, podcasts, YouTube videos, radio shows, even still images. Be prepared to double-check everything.
Beware of confirmation bias. Just because you might agree with what an article is saying doesn't mean it's true.
As Mad-Eye Moody said in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, "Constant Vigilance!" Always be ready to fact check.
Even the best researchers will be fooled once in a while. If you find yourself fooled by a fake news story, use your experience as a learning tool.