Pope Francis has recently labeled disinformation as “probably the greatest damage that the media can do”. He compared the media’s obsession with scandals to coprophilia (abnormal pleasure in feces) and the people’s consumption of these news as coprophagia (consumption of feces).

In these quotes, the pope mentioned some events that have recently occurred. There was once a rumor going around about the pope endorsing Trump, which turned out to be completely false. This claim had no evidence behind it, yet the rumor spread on a huge scale and was believed by many. This is a perfect example how people want controversy and the media is catering to their needs by creating controversial news that is false.

This is not a minor issue, as false news reports have been greatly growing in number. For instance, there was recently a news report about Hillary Clinton running a child sex ring out of a pizza shop. This was another false report which went viral.

Similarly, there was another about Democrats wanting to impose Islamic law in Florida. There was one about CNN airing transgender pornography. The list goes on, but the point is that a new epidemic has arisen.

These occurrences have been increasing greatly in number recently, so much in fact to the point of the Pope having to address it. The reason that the Pope is so worried about this issue is that people are believing these fake news report, and some never realize that the news is fake.

An anonymous source said that “I actually fell for one of these lies once, and the worst part is that I believed it because of my perception that news sites were reliable.”

Due to the increasing frequency of occurrences of fake news, Mr. Bell has given 3 steps to detect fake news. 

1. Mr. Bell recommends CABU which is content, authority, bias, understanding. There are ten questions to ask to asses a resource’s valuation:

Can you locate the Author/Publisher easily?

Can you locate the author’s credentials?

Can you locate the copyright or publish date?

Does the resource come from a reliable source (organization, college, business, etc)?

Does the resource come from a reliable domain (.edu, .gov, .org, etc)?

Does the resource have a References or Bibliography section?

Can you easily distinguish the difference between facts and opinion?

Do the images improve your understanding or add clarity to the writing?

Can you fully understand the writing within the resource?

Does the resource help you triangulate, make comparisons or make connections to answer your research question/purpose?

2. To use a site that actually verifies a source’s credibility, such as www.factcheck.org or www.aboutthedata.com

 
3. Common sense: “Look at the article or picture and see if it actually seems feasible.”

These false stories are usually very popular, and now certain news organizations are making false news that is controversial on purpose in order to earn more money. The inability of the general populace to discern real news from fake gossip is being taken advantage of by the media.

Adarsh Abbagani