“You are young yet, my friend,” replied my host, “but the time will arrive when you will learn to judge for yourself of what is going on in the world, without trusting to the gossip of others. Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.”
-Edgar Allan Poe, “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether” [Text-02], Graham’s Magazine (Philadelphia, PA), vol. XXVIII, no. 5, November 1845, pp. 193-200
Fake News isn’t new.
Manipulating fake news to suit political agendas is a huge concern. Social media crawls with staffers and members of political parties and activist groups. Good old propaganda proliferates and brazen apparatchiks operate openly.
Is ‘fake news’ actually ‘post-truth’?
The Oxford Dictionary chose post-truth as its word of 2016. “An adjective defined as ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief’.”
Why in the digital age are we being so easily spooked and so easily led? How are we going to rationally engage an overloaded and passionate people?
Learning about things by seeking opposing points of view is a good start. Don’t forget to check your confirmation bias.
Thankfully Wikipedia has this list of fake news sites.
You can definitely trust Wikipedia because Wikipedia is on the internet.