Question Everything! Reading the News with a Critical Eye

Clickbait: 
misleading/shocking headlines that entice readers to click through

• Visit the website that published this story (which has been taken down, but you can click on the headline to view a cached version). Look around at the other stories on the site. What's your impression of this site? Credibility? Bias?

Confirmation bias: 
stories that are heavily slanted or false, intended to reinforce the reader's views
 

• Does this headline seem plausible? Why/why not? Who might be likely to share it on social media?

• Did Donald Trump call Republicans the "dumbest group of voters?"
• 

Wild claims: 
articles claiming to reveal outlandish conspiracies, cover-ups, miracle cures, shocking revelations, etc.

• Who wrote this article? What might motivate that person to make such a claim?

Reconstituted news stories: 
old stories surfacing and being passed off as recent

• Why would this story have resurfaced and gone viral around the time of the Paris attacks?

Hoax sites: 
news that isn't true and whose purpose is to misinform; can easily go viral and be misinterpreted as true

• The web address for this story (no longer live, but click on the headline to view a cached version) was:
  http://abcnews.com.co/amish-america-commit-vote-donald-trump-mathematically-guaranteeing-presidential-victory/.
  Does anything about the URL raise questions?

Satire sites
news that isn't necessarily true but whose purpose is to entertain, rather than mislead

Can you recognize this news story as satire?

.@SeanSpicer's role in the Trump administration will be to provide the American public with robust and clearly articulated misinformation. pic.twitter.com/IlRkZPbDZl

— The Onion (@TheOnion) January 29, 2017

It appears that Sean Spicer may not have! (Snopes confirms.)

You nailed it. Period! https://t.co/AUmS1C222b

— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) January 29, 2017