One of my biggest internet peeves is people who share "news" stories without bothering to do basic research. That said, I understand how easy it is to see a piece on a topic, and it either shocks you, outrages you, or perfectly fits with what you think, and you share it, because hey, people need to know right?
What I'm hoping to do here is show you how to do some quick research to the validity of a story or post, is there truth to it, is it embellished, twisted, or urban legend/smear piece/hogwash?
First, the start of the sniff test, what is your gut reaction? "thats nuts" "makes sense" or something in between? Don't click share yet though, because this is just a start point, and sometimes our gut feelings are out of tune, for instance even a few years ago, the idea of unwarranted snooping of private correspondence by government entities would have been an unheard of idea, yet its turning out to be not such a paranoid statement after all
Next, in no particular order:
Check it on a fact checking website, I personally like snopes, but I also don't tend to just check one, I like to compare results and get a kind of consensus, sometimes they may not have checked the story you are looking for, and you have to dig a little deeper, or maybe you want to double check what they found.
So now you get to do some Google (or Bing, or Duckduckgo, whatever) work.
Try searching the headline, or the general topic of the post, or a name mentioned, something to anchor on and check out. See who else mentions it, if someone else has maybe already debunked it, or attempted to verify it, or (as happens with urban legends) if it has popped up before, for instance, you are looking at a (supposed) current story, but you find results on it from 10 years ago with slightly altered details
Another check, what other content does the source post? Are they generally reliable, off the wall, hit or miss? Odds are, if nothing else, you may struggle to verify the particular facts of a piece, but you can at least verify the credibility of the author or source. By this I do not mean their political stance or opinion, it really is possible for someone who does not share your opinion to actually present factual data. What I do mean, do they have a reliable track record? Or do they tend to toss anything out there that backs their given stance or maligns the other side?
Do they provide sources? Anyone can post anything they want these days (Source: I have a blog...) but when they post something, do they provide the source? Do they leave you breadcrumbs to check it out for yourself? Or do they toss it out there and that's that? Just because someone doesn't give source(s) doesn't mean it's false, but it should send off some flags
Can you corroborate the story independent of the circle you found it in?
I realize that the "mainstream media" isn't what it used to be, and sometimes (ok, alot of times) an "independent" source will have a story, or better reporting of that story, than the big names will, but that isn't enough. Conservative and progressive blogospheres are both very guilty of these, the blogs go nuts with a story that maligns the other side, yet it turns out to be a hoax, or grossly misreported or exaggerated...but it's already out, and your friends are sharing it like mad. Relying on the "alternative media" as your sole source of news and information will lead you wrong just as sure as if you solely watch FOX or MSNBC, etc. Don't even get me started on Alex Jones....another post another time...
You should be able to, if nothing else, find a local station covering it, the point is, is there another source covering, preferably another media type? So you are checking a story you found on a blog, and you find a news post on it, or another blog post from a blog you respect, or a newspaper article
Lets look at it this way, lets take it off the internet and pretend it's people.
Fred tells you a crazy sounding story, and insists it is all true, you don't really know Fred, but it interests you and you want to check it out.
You ask Hank, who Fred insists saw it first hand. Hank shows you pictures/video/etc and verifies it is all true, or, on the flip side, Hank tells you Fred is making up nonsense.
Oversimplified yes, but that is stories on the internet, anyone can make any nonsense up and insist it is fact. It is your responsibility to check it out, unless you're ok with falling for every hoax that comes around and being everyone's crazy uncle, then carry on. The internet is full of information, overwhelmingly so sometimes. It is all literally at our fingertips, this is a double edged sword, it is easy to get distracted by nonsense and miss the real news (And by nonsense, I don't mean pictures of cats, I mean getting worked up over a hoax and ignoring something like the NSA reading your email...hi NSA! *waves*)
I will follow this post up with an example of an actual "news" story that has been making the rounds that a friend asked me to verify, and how I researched it, and in this case, proved it a hoax
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