Fake News & Fact Checking

More definitions of Fake News:

• Understanding The Fake News Universe: A Guide To Fake News Terminology
• Fake news, Propaganda, and Influence Operations – A guide to journalism in a new, and more chaotic media environment

Fake news is information that is clearly and demonstrably fabricated and that has been packaged and distributed to appear as legitimate news. Fake news refers to a specific piece of information -- it does not refer to any particular type of news outlet or individual.

Forms of misinformation that weaponize Fake News: 

• Propaganda: Misleading or highly biased information that is specifically designed to confirm or promote a particular ideological viewpoint
• Clickbait: articles that feature headlines designed to get people to click on them, often by presenting a misleading or warped sense of what the post is about. (This does not necessarily constitute that the article is fake, but fake news often uses a clickbait format.)
• Conspiracy Theory: an explanation or interpretation of events that is based on questionable or nonexistent evidence of a supposed "secret plan" by a group to obscure events.
• Satire: writing or art designed to make social commentary based on mockery or imitation of real-life events or actors. (Some fake news sites claim to be satirists bu do not advertise themselves as satire.)
• Misleading or Out-of-Context Information: this kind of information does not on its own constitute fake news as it is not wholly fabricated and it can exist within a news report that is based on actual events that occurred, but widely shared stories that contain misinformation can feed the larger ecosystem by creating a friendly audience for fabrications.

​Source: mediamatters.org