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Note: This is a letter to the editor of the Florida Times-Union which was published on November 30, 2017.
The recent tips offered by Times-Union Editorial Page Editor Mike Clark on how to spot fake news were helpful.
However, Clark neglected to address one very serious problem: The inability of Americans to comprehend satire, which is the most prevalent form of fake news.
When reading or viewing satire, many Americans have no idea that they are reading or viewing satire.
People share articles from websites like The Onion, The Valley Report, The Babylon Bee and others as if the stories were real news.
Comedic literacy in this country is at an all-time low. Tragically, most Americans no longer “get” the jokes. So here are a few tips to help people recognize satire on the internet:
- When a website has a slogan like “Satire for the wise, news for the dumb,” it could be a fake news website.
- When the “About” page for a website mentions the word “entertainment,” all or most of the content is likely to be satire.And if there is no “About” page for the website, the content might be satirical.
- If there are no named authors for articles — or if the articles are by authors with names that sound as though they were made up (for example, “Nitpicker” or “Largemouth”) — the news may be fake.
Danny Murphy, Jacksonville
Murphy is the author of the book “Fake News 101: How to Recognize Fake News and Avoid Being Fooled by It.”
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