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Gotcha! This headline is “Click bait” to lure you into a website under false pretenses. Now that you’re here, we hope you’ll stay to learn more about how not to fall victim to click bait or other online scams and misinformation.
In the Valleyview Municipal Library’s 2024 to 2026 Plan of Service, one of our areas of focus is helping our community with Information Fluency and Making Informed Choices.
A big part of information fluency is being able to identify accurate information. These days there are many sources of dubious information or outright misinformation out there. It can be a challenge for even the most savvy information consumers to figure out what sources are factual.
We hope that this page and the tips here will help you to evaluate information sources and find information you can trust. We'll continue to add more information and updates. Don’t forget - You can always call the public library staff if you have questions or want to learn more.
Verifying news stories and images to make sure they aren’t providing misinformation or ‘fake news’:
- FactCheck.org: monitors the accuracy of political stories, mainly from the U.S.
- PolitiFact: verifies political news stories.
- https://africacheck.org/fact-checks/guides/guide-how-spot-fakes-hoaxes-online
- Snopes: fact-checks Internet rumours and stories. This will determine whether that post your cousin shared on Facebook re: gun violence in America has any merit.
- Google Reverse Image Search) allows you to check images and videos on social media and websites.
- TinEye – a free extension for Chrome and Firefox browsers uses image identification technology to determine where an image has come from
Credits:
University of Toronto Libraries - https://onesearch.library.utoronto.ca/faq/how-do-i-spot-misinformation
Africa Check.org - https://africacheck.org/fact-checks/guides/guide-how-spot-fakes-hoaxes-online
Shout out to the Sexsmith Shannon Public Library for sharing much of the information included.