News

3 Tips For Helping Someone Spot Misleading News Stories

Unfortunately, you can’t always trust everything that you see online or hear on the news. Because in many cases, people can benefit from you believing and taking action on certain things, regardless of whether those things are true or not. So to help ensure that you’re not taken advantage of in this way, it’s important that you learn how to spot disinformation and teach those you care about to spot these things too. This way, your elderly loved ones won’t wind up spending their rent for their senior living community on causes that they shouldn’t or propagating ideas that aren’t factual.

To help you with this goal, here are three tips for helping someone spot misleading news stories. 

Look For The Sources Of Information

When you read something posted online, one of the first things that you can do to see if it’s trustworthy information is to check out what the sources of the information are. 

In most cases, if the sources of the information are very apparent and are from people or organizations that you know are trustworthy, that information has a greater chance of being trustworthy. But if the claims that you’re seeing are being made by people you don’t know and can’t confirm are trustworthy, you may want to think twice about believing the information that’s being presented to you. 

Learn To Spot Bias

Bias is another thing that you should keep an eye out for if you’re wanting to spot information that may not be accurate or fair. 

In most cases, people show their bias when they allow their own beliefs to affect their judgment of people or things. They then aren’t able to look at the whole picture and encourage others to do the same. So if you feel like something you’re reading is being oversimplified or isn’t taking everything into consideration, there could be bias that’s causing this. And when someone is biased, their take on a topic can’t necessarily be trusted and could be misleading. 

Do You Trust Who’s Sharing The Information?

Aside from who created this content in the first place, you should also ask yourself if the people that you’re getting this information from or who are sharing it with others are people that you trust to be truthful and well-informed about the topic of discussion. 

Some people tend to be more prone to believing things at face value. So when these people share sensationalized information, you may want to begin taking what they’re sharing with a grain of salt until you’re able to corroborate what’s being claimed

If you want to be able to spot misleading news stories and help others to do the same, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you develop this skill. 

The polarization encouraged far-right forces to riot in the midterm elections

Think continues working in the documentation for his next project, which will be related to the polarization of American society and the resurgence of anfar-right mentality. This new phenomenon is also spreading to other countries of the world. All the information is being achieved by talking with the protagonists of the news and experts who independently share their vision.

One of the most difficult and complex chapters to be portrayed objectively, was the incident of January 6, 2021, when the White House was stormed by far-right Trump supporters, such as the Proud Boys, which are being called to testify.

Members of the House Freedom Caucus helped plan Trump’s attempt to overturn the election.  They attended a meeting at the White House on Dec. 21, 2020 in which, at least, 11 lawmakers discussed efforts to spill the election resultsand helped spread false information, according to testimony and records obtained by the committee.

And one of the groups that drove this effort is the Falun Gong sect, related with The Epoch Times.Falun Gong, a religious movement embroiled in a decades-long conflict with the Chinese government, has become a political asset in the Trump era due to its long-standing propagation of communist conspiracy theories.

At the time, reputable media such as The New York Times has reported that The Epoch Times used fake accounts to campaign for Trump during the 2016 election through its company Beautiful Life. Moreover, after they spent about $11 million on Facebook ads in 2019, the platform banned them for violating rules on political advertising transparency.

In April, at the height of its ad spending, videos from Epoch Media Group counted about 3 billion views on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, ranking 11th among all video creators across all platforms and outpacing all other traditional news publishers, according to data from social media analytics firm Tubular.

This engagement made The Epoch Times one of the favorites for the Trump family and a key component of the president’s re-election campaign. According to the Washington Post, reporters at The Epoch Times have received special access from the Trump administration: One America News and The Epoch Times were among the only media outlets with access to Georgia’s voting audience in the 2020 election.

Once thevote counts were published, the website questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 election (neither journalists nor Trump’s legal team have uncovered credible evidence of widespread voter fraud). They also peddle a number of conspiracy theories as the one they supported in 2018 with the“full rundown” of Spygatethat claims an Obama’s administration spy attempted to thwart Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

There was great concern in The Epoch Times when Biden finally won the 2020 election. At the same time, to avoid trouble with Democrats over their earlier smear campaign against President Biden, Epoch Times executives decided at one point that they should keep a low profile internally and “drop the close relationship with Trump.”

The truth is, however, that January 6, 2021 gave the Epoch Times another chance.

Angelo Carusone, president and CEO of Media Matters for America, said that by exploiting the deep partisan polarization in U.S. politics and the long anti-Communist tradition of the American right, these media outlets, led by Epoch Times, have sought to link Biden and the Democratic Party to radical left-wing movements like Antifa.

Epoch Times pointed to a strong contender in the Democratic Party,an opportunistic rehash of existing conspiracy narratives – was characteristic of these outlets. “They’re not drivers, they’re not weaving new conspiracy theories, they’re amplifying what’s already out there,” Carusone said.

While the Proud Boys and QAnon have been punished by law, the Epoch Times remains at large. With the 2022 midterm elections in full swing, Carusone said, the intensification of conspiratorial messages in the Epoch Times’ output and its embrace of Trumpism could make them even more damaging to the United States.

Despite being banned from Facebook and unable to place many ads on the platform, The Epoch Times did not give up on other platforms and actively published hundreds of articles about the midterm elections on its website, including dozens of articles about Trump’s “high” approval rating (regardless of the actual situation).

In fact, in addition to obfuscating the midterm elections to attract Republicans for patronage, The Epoch Times and Falun Gong behind it appear to be undermining the American situation in even more egregious ways by opposing abortion and condemning homosexuality and feminism.

Media Contact:

Ángel Tapia

Hello Think

angel@hellothink.es

3 Ways to Avoid Fake News

Keeping up with the news is essential for a variety of reasons- such as knowing what’s happening in your community, and staying up to date on current events and developments from around the world to be able to make informed decisions. However, in an era of “fake news” and misinformation, it’s more important than ever to verify the accuracy of what you’re reading, watching, or listening to. 

Here are three ways that you can do just that.

Always Check the Source 

There are credible news sources, and there are news sources whose reporting should be taken with a grain of salt.

A credible news source is one that has a history of accurate reporting. These sources typically have a team of fact checkers who verify the accuracy of everything before it is published. Additionally, credible news sources will often include links to primary sources in their articles- allowing readers to check the information for themselves. 

Some examples of credible news sources include the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, and BBC News.

On the other hand, there are news sources whose reporting is often inaccurate and exaggerated. These sources tend to be less reliable, and their articles should always be verified with other sources before being believed. 

Look for Multiple Perspectives

The news should be an unbiased report of just the facts. However, sometimes reporters allow their personal biases to color their writing. To get a well-rounded view of any given story, it’s important to look for multiple perspectives. 

For example, if you’re reading an article about recent politics in senior living facilities, try to find an article on the same topic from a news source with different political leanings. This will help you to get the real story. 

You can find other reports of the news with a simple Google search. Just type in the keyword of what you’re looking for, and then scroll to the “News” section on the search results page.

Be Wary of Clickbait Headlines

To get people to click on their articles, some news sources use headlines that are deliberately misleading or exaggerated. These headlines are often called “clickbait.”

For example, a clickbait headline might say “You Won’t Believe What Happened Next!” or “All The Celebrities Are Doing This!” When you see headlines like this, be careful. The article is likely to be full of fluff, and it probably won’t give you the information that you’re looking for.

Instead, look for headlines that are clear and to the point. A good headline will give you a general idea of what the article is about, without being too vague or too specific.

The news is very important to stay updated in the world, but you should always take into consideration the credibility of the sources, look for multiple perspectives, and beware of clickbait headlines. By following these steps, you can be sure that you’re getting accurate and reliable information.