How To Spot Fake News - IFLA in the post-truth society

With Wikipedia’s #1lib1ref (One Librarian, One Reference) campaign going on – the theme of last week being fake news – IFLA posted an How to Spot Fake News infographic on facebook and twitter. We also published a blog about the topic, exploring some of the ways libraries help battle alternative facts and fake news.

Discussions about fake news has led to a new focus on media literacy more broadly, and the role of libraries and other education institutions in providing this. When Oxford Dictionaries announce post-truth is Word of the Year 2016, we as librarians realise action is needed to educate and advocate for critical thinking – a crucial skill when navigating the information society.

The fake news infographic shows eight simple steps (based on FactCheck.org’s 2016 article How to Spot Fake News) to discover the verifiability of a given news-piece in front of you. Download, print, translate, and share – at home, at your library, in your local community, and in social media networks. The more we crowdsource our wisdom, the wiser the world becomes.

We already have translations in 36 different langauges on the IFLA website. If a version in your language does not appear, please please contact Evgeni Hristov at IFLA Headquarters for an editable version of the infographic.