Untrustworthy source

Have you ever heard of the source which the article is posted on?
Do a quick search and figure out if the source is trustworthy or not. Have a look at what information the site provides and do they have legitimate contact details.
​CNN.com would be trustworthy while Jackisascientist.com probably is not.

Unrealistic headlines

Seem too good to be true? That’s probably because it is!
If you spot a headline which makes you think ‘is that true?’, type the headline into a search engine to see if any other sources have posted about the same subject.

UNusual URL link

The best way to recognise if a news story is true or fake, is to look at the URL. Sometimes fake news sources will use a URL that looks similar to a legitimate one, so check for mistakes or unusual formatting within the URL.

Out of date

As mentioned before, we bet you’ve all seen the ‘North Carolina suffers the coldest winter ever’ right? Stories like this tend to be shared around the same time each year, but will always have the same date. Before reading a news article, just check the date before you read and share it.

Poor formatting

Fake news reports are usually written in a poor format. They tend to have spelling mistakes, missing grammar and sometimes even the way the report is laid out can appear to look slightly strange.

unverified images

Think you’ve seen an image before but to a different news article? It’s more than likely that this is the case. Fake news stories don’t tend to have their own imagery, so they use images that already exist but use them in a different context. Some images may also be edited to fit the fake news article.

unrecognized author

If you’ve never heard of the author of the article, do a quick search to see if they have written anything else that is credible

Hoax or humor?

Can’t tell if the story is a hoax or for humour? Again, do a quick search of the source and see whether or not it is known for publishing humorous articles. Sites like "The Onion"or "Weekly World News" are examples.