{"id":128493,"date":"2015-11-03T16:05:01","date_gmt":"2015-11-03T23:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/03\/spotting-online-hoaxes.html"},"modified":"2015-11-04T23:05:16","modified_gmt":"2015-11-05T06:05:16","slug":"spotting-online-hoaxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/03\/spotting-online-hoaxes.html","title":{"rendered":"Spotting online hoaxes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some good breaking-news-viral-meme kinds of research tools listed here (Google's image lookup is hugely useful).<\/p>\n

If it's not brand-brand-brand-new, some additional ideas I've found ueful:<\/p>\n

1. As mentioned in the comments of the story below … look at the comments. People may already be debunking (or explaining or discussing) the origins of the tale. It may be hard to find them amidst the squawking, but it can sometimes be a helpful source.<\/p>\n

2. Dig through to primary sources. If you're reading a story on an opinion site, drill down through the links to the news sources behind it. There may be additional information that was lost in the opinion "spin". (If the site doesn't offer links to news sources … consider that a warning flag as well.)<\/p>\n

If it's just a visual, try just a plain old Google of the particulars (some text from the image, or some good descriptive words). There may be additional information already out there that can improve understanding of what's being shown.<\/p>\n

3. If it's been more than a few days, http:\/\/snopes.com<\/a> is, of course, an excellent resource (particularly for memes that keep rising from their graves to eat the brains of the living). For political items, a variety of political fact-checking sites exist — they are useful, at the very least, for reviewing the information behind things like some outrageous (or outrageously edited) quotation by That Candidate You Really Dislike.<\/p>\n

As to what you should do when you uncover something as a hoax or egregiously unfair in how it's been edited and presented … it's sometimes tempting to get into a slap-fight with someone posting garbage ("You people who hate My Candidate are all evil hacks!"). It's also tempting just to let it drop (nobody will believe it, right?). I try (though I don't always succeed) to respond to the post \/ email \/ share with the facts<\/i> of the matter, avoiding the name calling, to let people draw their own conclusions.<\/p>\n

It might seem like even just correcting someone is setting up an argument, but the facts are important; without being reality-based, we can't do much to deal with reality. And you'd be surprised how many thanks you will get from people who honestly weren't sure, didn't know, had some doubts, and who really appreciate you doing a little research.<\/p>\n

As Jefferson wrote: "Truth is great and will prevail if left to herself. She is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them."<\/i> [http:\/\/wist.info\/jefferson-thomas\/2082\/<\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\n<\/a>
\nSix easy ways to tell if that viral story is a hoax<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some good breaking-news-viral-meme kinds of research tools listed here (Google's image lookup is hugely useful). If it's not brand-brand-brand-new, some additional ideas I've found ueful: 1. As mentioned in the comments of the story below … look at the comments. People may already be debunking (or explaining or discussing) the origins of the tale. It … Continue reading “Spotting online hoaxes”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-blogging"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":131544,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/14\/can-you-live-fact-check-a-debate.html","url_meta":{"origin":128493,"position":0},"title":"Can you live "fact check" a debate?","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 14-Sep-16 10:47pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, yes and no.The proposal in the article -- a formal process where one person in the debate could throw a flag on a statement by the other person, and a crack set of fact-checkers would decide if it was the truth or a lie -- sounds really good, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136833,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/06\/24\/the-media-bias-chart-2018.html","url_meta":{"origin":128493,"position":1},"title":"The Media Bias Chart (2018)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 24-Jun-18 3:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I had to drill down several levels to find the source for this oft-forwarded (and recently updated) chart, but it was worth it, both to see where it came from and to look at some of the reasoning that went into it (the author has a good multiple-part article starting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Media-Bias-Chart_Version-3.1_Watermark-min.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Media-Bias-Chart_Version-3.1_Watermark-min.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Media-Bias-Chart_Version-3.1_Watermark-min.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":129091,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/08\/the-onion-writers-are-reading-my-mind.html","url_meta":{"origin":128493,"position":2},"title":"The "Onion" writers are reading my mind","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 8-Dec-15 6:26pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Especially the \"increasingly nervous\" part. Originally shared by +The Onion: \u2018This Will Be The End Of Trump\u2019s Campaign,\u2019 Says Increasingly Nervous Man For Seventh Time This Year SALISBURY, MD\u2014Repeating identical comments he had made in June, July, August, September, and twice in November, increasingly nervous local man Aaron Howe responded\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14639,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/04\/27\/its-studebaker-time.html","url_meta":{"origin":128493,"position":3},"title":"It’s Studebaker Time","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 27-Apr-09 6:57pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Growing up, I always thought Studebaker was cool. I mean, it was a recent car brand that was no longer made (after 1966). How weird was that? I always wondered why, and how folks who had bought one felt about owning a brand that no longer existed, or having once\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/imagessaturn-autos.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":894,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/11\/04\/winston_smiths.html","url_meta":{"origin":128493,"position":4},"title":"Winston Smith’s methods seem positively quaint","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 4-Nov-01 1:02pm","format":false,"excerpt":"In Orwell's 1984, Smith's job at the Ministry of Truth was to use scissors to (literally) cut-and-paste \"unpersons\" from the newspaper archives, filling them in with appropriate stories about the...","rel":"","context":"In "Media Moguls"","block_context":{"text":"Media Moguls","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-moguls"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25694,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/24\/the-validation-society.html","url_meta":{"origin":128493,"position":5},"title":"The Validation Society","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 24-Jan-12 1:08pm","format":false,"excerpt":"As people have been saying since the dawn of the blog -- a lot of it's about ego. \"You can argue that you post on Facebook to keep your family up-to-date about your life. You can argue that you tweet to build up your personal brand. But in the end,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128493"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128515,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128493\/revisions\/128515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}