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Decoding News Sources: Credible, Fake, or Click-Bait?: Useful Terms & Definitions

This guide will explain how you can protect yourself from falling for fake news by walking you through the differences between credible news sources and those with strong biases and/or tendencies to use incorrect data.

Useful Terms & Defintions

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2009) provides the following definitions of important terms when determining the credibility of information:

BIAS

  1. trans v to give a settled and often prejudiced outlook to <his background biases him against foreigners>

  2. n a tendency to believe that some people, ideas, etc., are better than others that usually results in treating some people unfairly

  3. n a strong interest in something or ability to do something. (p. 118)

CLICK-BAIT

  1. something (such as a headline) designed to make readers want to click on a hyperlink especially when the link leads to content of dubious value or interest

CREDIBLE

  1. offering reasonable grounds for being believed <a credible account of the accident> <credible witnesses>

  2. of sufficient capability to be militarily effective <a credible deterrent> <credible forces>. (p. 293)

FACT

  1. a thing done: such asa obsolete :  feat b :  crime <accessory after the fact>c archaic :  action

  2. archaic :  performance, doing

  3. the quality of being actual :  actuality <a question of fact hinges on evidence>

  4. a. something that has actual existence <space exploration is now a fact>b :  an actual occurrence <prove the fact of damage>

  5. a piece of information presented as having objective reality <These are the hard facts of the case.>. (p. 448)

FAKE

  1. adj  counterfeit, sham <He was wearing a fake mustache.>

  2. n one that is not what it purports to be: such asa :  a worthless imitation passed off as genuine <The signature was a fake.>b :  impostor, charlatan <He told everyone that he was a lawyer, but he was just a fake.>c :  a simulated movement in a sports contest (as a pretended kick, pass, or jump or a quick movement in one direction before going in another) designed to deceive an opponent d :  a device or apparatus used by a magician to achieve the illusion of magic in a trick. (p. 450)

INFORMATION

  1. the communication or reception of knowledge or intelligence

  2. a (1) :  knowledge obtained from investigation, study, or instruction (2) :  intelligence, news (3) :  facts, data b :  the attribute inherent in and communicated by one of two or more alternative sequences or arrangements of something (as nucleotides in DNA or binary digits in a computer program) that produce specific effects c (1) :  a signal or character (as in a communication system or computer) representing data (2) :  something (as a message, experimental data, or a picture) which justifies change in a construct (as a plan or theory) that represents physical or mental experience or another construct d :  a quantitative measure of the content of information; specifically :  a numerical quantity that measures the uncertainty in the outcome of an experiment to be performed

  3. the act of informing against a person

  4. a formal accusation of a crime made by a prosecuting officer as distinguished from an indictment presented by a grand jury. (p. 641)

SATIRE

  1. a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn

  2. trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly. (p. 1104)

SPIN

  1. a :  a usually ingenious twist <puts an Asian spin on the pasta dishes>b (1) :  a special point of view, emphasis, or interpretation presented for the purpose of influencing opinion <put the most favorable spin on the findings> (2) :  spin control