LibAnswers

Several methods can be used to determine if an article is fake news.

• Read and Evaluate: Read and grade the article like your professor would do, looking for spelling and grammar errors, and checking for sources. Accurate articles are professional and contain sources for the presented facts.
• Verify Information: Verify the sources, facts, and quotes. One method of verifying a fact is with other articles on that topic.  Use keywords from the article in searches to find other articles for fact comparison. For online articles, click on the source links to verify the facts.  You can also perform searches on images to assist with verification.
• Use fact-checking websites: Fact-checking websites like Snopes, Politifact, FactCheck and others, have often already checked the truthfulness of popular articles and topics.
• Look for facts, not emotions: If the article brings up strong emotions, find other articles on the topic.
• Ask a librarian for help.

For more information, try this library guide: "Fake or Fact: Evaluating news, information, and sources."  It provides  selected books, articles, videos, and websites to help with spotting fake news.