False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and Satirical “News” Sources
Below is a list of fake, false, regularly misleading, and/or otherwise questionable “news” organizations, as well as organizations that regularly use clickbait-y headlines and descriptions, that are commonly shared on facebook and other social media sites. Some of these websites rely on “outrage” by using distorted headlines and decontextualized or dubious information in order to generate likes, shares, and profits.
Other sources on this list are purposefully fake with the intent of satire/comedy, which can offer important critical commentary on politics and society, but they are regularly shared as actual/literal news. I’m including them here, for now, because 1.) they have the potential to perpetuate misinformation based on different audience (mis)interpretations and 2.) to make sure anyone who reads a story by The Onion, for example, understands its purpose. If you think this is unnecessary, please see Literally Unbelievable.
Notes: Again, not all of these sources are always or inherently problematic, neither are all of them fake or false, but I’m including them here at this time because they should be considered in conjunction with other news/info sources due to their tendency to rely on clickbait headlines or facebook descriptions etc.
70news.wordpress.com
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Politicalo
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PoliticusUSA
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Addicting Info
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American News X
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Private-eye.co.uk (some satire)
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Associated Media Coverage
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Huzlers
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Rawstory
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IfYouOnlyNews
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React 365
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Being Liberal
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Indecision Forever (www.cc.com/indecision)
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IJR (Independent Journal Review)
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InfoWars
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Bipartisan Report
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Red State
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Reductress (satire/comedy)
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Blue Nation Review
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Inquisitor.com
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Breitbart
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Satira Tribune
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Cap News (satire)
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ChristWire.org (satire)
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Liberal America
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The Blaze
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The Free Thought Project
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The New Yorker’s Borowitz Report (satire column)
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ClickHole.com (satire/comedy)
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The Onion (satire)
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The Other 98%
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The Reporterz
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The Stately Harold
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MSNBC.com.co
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MSNBC.website
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Naha Daily
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National Report
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Twitchy.com (gossip)
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NC Scooper
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DailyCurrant.com (satire)
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Daily NewsBin
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News Examiner
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US Uncut
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NewsBuzzDaily
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Newslo
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Newswatch 28
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Winning Democrats
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Newswatch 33
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DuffleBlog.com (satire/comedy)
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World Net Daily
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World News Daily Report
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Now8News
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Empire Herald
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Empire News
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Occupy Democrats
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Endingthefed.com (ETF News)
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Tips for analyzing news sources:
- Avoid websites that end in “lo” ex: Newslo (above). These sites specialize in taking a piece of accurate information and then packaging that information with other false or misleading “facts.”
- Watch out for websites that end in “.com.co” as they are often fake versions of real news sources.
- Watch out if known/reputable news sites are not also reporting on the story. Sometimes lack of coverage is the result of corporate media bias and other factors, but there should typically be more than one source reporting on a topic or event.
- Odd domain names generally equal odd and rarely truthful news.
- Lack of author attribution may, but not always, signify that the news story is suspect and requires verification.
- Some news organizations are also letting bloggers post under the banner of particular news brands; however, many of these posts do not go through the same editing process (ex: BuzzFeed Community Posts, Kinja blogs, Forbes blogs).
- Check the “About Us” tab on websites or look up the website on Snopes or Wikipedia for more information about the source.
- Bad web design and use of ALL CAPS can also be a sign that the source you’re looking at should be verified and/or read in conjunction with other sources.
- If the story makes you REALLY ANGRY it’s probably a good idea to keep reading about the topic via other sources to make sure the story you read wasn’t purposefully trying to make you angry (with potentially misleading or false information) in order to generate shares and ad revenue.
- It’s always best to read multiple sources of information to get a variety of viewpoints and media frames. Some sources not yet included in this list (although their practices at times may qualify them for addition), such as The Daily Kos, The Huffington Post, and Fox News, vacillate between providing important, legitimate, problematic, and/or hyperbolic news coverage, requiring readers and viewers to verify and contextualize information with other sources.
Bio: I am an assistant professor of communication & media, and this list started as a resource for my students, who are learning about journalism/social media/media literacy.
If you have suggestions of sources/websites that should be added to the list, please email me at mzimdars1@gmail.com
Update 1: I’ve received hundreds of emails with suggestions, very few of which are duplicates, so it will take me a while to sift through and verify them. I will add them as appropriate.
Update 2: Yes, I am considering coding/categorizing these sources for clarity and creating a more durable/dynamic database. This is likely just step 1.
Update 3: Some people are asking which news sources I trust, and all I can say is that I read/watch/listen very widely, from mainstream, corporate owned sources (The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes) as well as The Atlantic, National Public Radio, and various local and alternative sources with different political perspectives, some of which are included on this list. The problem: Even typically reliable sources, whether mainstream or alternative, corporate or nonprofit, rely on particular media frames to report stories and select stories based on different notions of newsworthiness. The best thing to do in our contemporary media environment is to read/watch/listen widely and often, and to be critical of the sources we share and engage with on social media.
© 2016 by Melissa Zimdars.
is made available under a Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://docs.google.com/document/d/10eA5-mCZLSS4MQY5QGb5ewC3VAL6pLkT53V_81ZyitM/preview
