Smart News

In the age of misinformation, evaluating sources and getting reliable journalism is more important than ever.

- Luc Rinaldi

 IN NOVEMBER 2014, Yaman Abuibaid and Daré Adebanjo, two computer-savvy teenagers in St. Catharines, Ont., were looking to make some fast money. Amazed by how easily their friends had fallen for a satirical news story about Kim Kardashian, they decided to launch their own spoof site, “Hot Global News,” hoping the ad dollars would roll in. At first, the project earned only modest pocket change, but a year in the duo struck gold. During and after the 2015 federal election campaign, they published dozens of satirical stories about the eventual winner: Trudeau banning Trump from entering Canada; Trudeau supporting ISIS; Trudeau handing out cannabis at Halloween. The stories were shared tens of thousands of times on social media, sparking both support and outrage.

“Justin Trudeau plus anything related to marijuana was the best formula for them,” says BuzzFeed News media editor Craig Silverman, who broke the story about the teens’ phony project. Before they were busted, the site was lucrative; it brought in more than $10,000 in advertising revenue in October 2015 alone.

When Oxford Dictionaries proclaimed “post-truth” to be 2016’s word of the year, they probably didn’t have enterprising high schoolers in mind. But digital misinformation—whether it’s mischievous kids or malicious political propaganda—is on the rise. Thankfully, when it comes to evaluating the news, there are some simple ways to separate fact from fiction.

EXAMINE THE SOURCE