Fake news is not new. In 1835, the New York Sun reported the discovery of batlike creatures on the moon, leading to record sales of the paper at 19,000 copies daily.
“Lunar animals and other objects Discovered by Sir John Herschel in his observatory at the Cape of Good Hope and copied from sketches in the Edinburgh Journal of Science.” An illustration for The New York Sun, credited to Benjamin Day, 1835. Source: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division
With the internet today, fake news has the ability to reach millions within minutes. Against this new digital media backdrop, the role of the trusted content curator has become even more important. To remain or become that trusted content curator, financial professionals must learn to identify fake news sites which may include hoax sites, satire sites or clickbait sites that rely on sensational headlines and half truths to attract click-throughs.
Melissa Zimdars, a media professor at Merrimack College in Massachusetts, offered some useful tips on in a cheat sheet on identifying fake news sites:
“1. Avoid websites that end in “lo” ex: Newslo. These sites take pieces of accurate information and then packaging that information with other false or misleading facts (sometimes for the purposes of satire or comedy)”
“2. Watch out for common news websites that end in .com.co as they are often fake versions of real news sources (remember: this is also the domain for Colombia!)”
To see the rest of her tips, see cheat sheet posted at http://bit.ly/2ezvFbV
In addition to learning to identify a fake news site, it would also be useful to review these lists of fake news sites:
1: CBSNews.com | CBS News is the news division of American television and radio service CBS
http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/dont-get-fooled-by-these-fake-news-sites/
2: Snopes.com | A rumor research site
http://www.snopes.com/2016/01/14/fake-news-sites/
3: OpenSources.co | A curated resource for assessing online information sources, available for public use
4: Wikipedia.org | A community-edited online information resource
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fake_news_websites
– By InvestmentPal
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