Students surf the Internet during a media lesson at their school.
If you are active on social media, you've probably done this at least once: shared something based on the headline without actually reading the link.

Many, many people are guilty of this. According to a study released in June by computer scientists at Columbia University and the French National Institute, 59 percent of links shared on social media have never actually been clicked.

The first thing you can do to combat "fake news" is to actually read articles before sharing them. When you read them, pay attention to the following signs that the article might be fake. There are fake news stories generated by both left- or Democrat-leaning, and right- or Republican-leaning websites. The same rules apply to both.

Determine Whether The Article Is From A Trustworthy Website

ABC News, the television network, has a website at abcnews.go.com. And ABC News, the fake news site, can be found at abcnews.com.co.

The use of ".co" at the end is a strong clue you are looking at fake news. But there are other signs as well.

Check The "Contact Us" Page

Some fake news sites do not have any contact information, which easily demonstrates that they are phony. The fake "ABC News" does have a "contact us" page - but it shows a picture of a single-family home in Topeka, Kansas. The real television network is located in New York City, in a 13-story building on 66th Street.

Examine The Byline Of The Reporter And See Whether It Makes Sense

On the fake ABC News site there is an article claiming a protester was paid $3,500 to protest Donald Trump. It is supposedly written by Jimmy Rustling. "Dr. Jimmy Rustling has won many awards for excellence in writing," the site says, "including fourteen Peabody awards and a handful of Pulitzer Prizes." (Peabody awards and Pulitzer Prizes are the highest honors in journalism and extremely difficult to win.) Doesn't that seem absurd? Or how about that he "spends 12-15 hours each day teaching his adopted 8-year-old Syrian refugee daughter how to read and write"?

All of the details are signs that "Dr. Rustling" is not a real person.

Read The Article Closely

Many fake articles have made-up quotes that are hard to read without laughing. About midway through the article on the protest, the founder of Snopes - a site that disproves fakes news on the Internet - is suddenly "quoted" as saying he approves of the article. It also goes on to describe Snopes as "a website known for its biased opinions and inaccurate information they write about stories on the internet." It's like a weird inside joke. In readers' minds, it should raise immediate red flags.

Scrutinize The Sources

Sometimes fake articles are based on merely a tweet. For example, fake news recently spread that suggested anti-Trump protesters were bused to demonstrations. As The New York Times found, this story started with a single, ill-informed tweet by a man with just 40 followers. Another apparently fake story, that Trump fed police officers working protests in Chicago, also started with a tweet - by a man who was not even there. He was just passing along a claim made by "friends." He also has a locked account, making the "news" highly suspicious.

Few real news stories are based on a single tweet with no additional confirmation. If the article has no links to reliable sources - or no links at all - you are likely reading fake news.

Look At The Ads

A flood of pop-up ads or other advertising on a news site indicates you should handle the story with care. Another sign is a bunch of ads or links designed to be clicked. Examples of such suggestive or attention-grabbing headlines might include "Celebs who did Porn Movies" or "Naughty Walmart Shoppers Who have no Shame at All." You generally do not find content like this on real news sites.

Use Search Engines To Double-Check

A simple Google search often will quickly tell you if the news you are reading is fake. Snopes has compiled a guide to fake news sites, allowing you to check whether the article comes from a fraudster. A website called RealorSatire.com is another way to double-check the truthfulness of an article. It allows you to post the URL of any article and it will quickly tell you if the article comes from a fake or biased news website.

Combating the spread of fake news begins with you, the reader. If it seems too fantastic, it probably is. Please think before you share.

]]>