Most of us have heard about the epidemic of Fake News. This is not a new phenomena, but rather an ongoing problem of consumers of information not doing diligent research to confirm the validity of presented information. With the rush to publish by news organizations and the ease with which scammers can make a site look legitimate, you as a consumer of information have to be more discerning in buying what you read or watch.

This guide will help you:

• analyze and evaluate information and sources
• debunk untruths

Misleading information published as news is not new to the 21st century.  In the late 19th century we called it "yellow journalism," and its practitioners used sensational headlines and outright fraudulent stories to increase sales. Today, with increasing reliance on both digital news outlets and social media for news, sifting through the messages for non-biased sources requires attention, and possibly reviewing multiple sources--including seeking out a reliable original source.  - Taken from ALA libguide

Scientific American Volume 321, Issue 3 (Sept. 2019)

Contents

• How Professional Truth Seekers Search for Answers

• How To Get Better at Embracing Unknowns

• The Search for Social Identity Leads to "Us" versus "Them"

• Deception in the Animal Kingdom

• Misinformation Has Created a New World Order

• How Misinformation Spreads and Why We Trust It

• How to Defraud Democracy

To read this issue, search for Scientific American with the ULS Ejournals search. Choose the entry from 2009 to present in Nature Journals Online. If you are off campus, you will have to enter your University of Pittsburgh username and password to access the issue.