{"id":32097,"date":"2022-11-29T02:18:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T02:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=32097"},"modified":"2022-11-30T11:43:15","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T11:43:15","slug":"how-can-you-tell-if-something-is-true-here-are-3-questions-to-ask-yourself-about-what-you-see-hear-and-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/how-can-you-tell-if-something-is-true-here-are-3-questions-to-ask-yourself-about-what-you-see-hear-and-read\/","title":{"rendered":"How can you tell if something is true? Here are 3 questions to ask yourself about what you see, hear and\u00a0read"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bob Britten<\/a>, West Virginia University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Curious Kids<\/a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you\u2019d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How can I tell if what I am hearing is true? \u2013 Adam, age 10, Maui, Hawaii<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Have you ever heard a story so exciting you wanted to share it right away? Something like a shark swimming up a flooded highway?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An image that seems to show just that was shared by many people after Hurricane Ian struck Florida in 2022. It was also widely shared after Hurricane Harvey<\/a> hit Houston, Texas, in 2017. It\u2019s a fake \u2013 a flooded highway image combined with one of a great white shark. The fact-checking website Snopes found it circulating as far back as 2011<\/a> after Hurricane Irene slammed Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Truth can be tricky to determine. Every message you read, see or hear comes from somewhere and was created by someone and for someone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I teach media literacy<\/a>, which is a way to think about information you get in the messages you receive via media<\/a>. You might think media means the news, but it also includes TikTok posts, television, books, advertisements and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When deciding whether to trust a piece of information, it\u2019s good to start with three main questions \u2013 who said it, what evidence did they give and how much do you want to believe it? The last one might seem a little strange, but you\u2019ll see why it\u2019s important by the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who said it?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s say you\u2019re really excited about a game that\u2019s coming out later this year. You want to be the first to learn about the new creatures, characters and game modes. So when a YouTube video pops up saying, \u201cGAME COMING TWO WEEKS EARLY,\u201d you can\u2019t wait to watch. But when you click, it\u2019s just a guy making predictions. Do you trust him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A source is where information comes from. You get information from sources every day \u2013 from teachers, parents and friends to people you\u2019ve never met on news sites, fan channels and social media. You probably have sources you trust and ones you don\u2019t. But why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would you trust your history teacher to tell you something about history? Probably, because they have a college degree that says they know their stuff. But what if your history teacher told you a fact about science your science teacher said was untrue? You\u2019d probably be better off going with the science teacher for your science facts. Just because a source is trustworthy in one subject doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re trustworthy in every subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s go back to the YouTuber. If you\u2019ve watched him for a while and he\u2019s reliably correct, that\u2019s a good start. At the same time, make sure you don\u2019t confuse his having an opinion with actually having knowledge<\/a>. Just because you like a source doesn\u2019t make it trustworthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is true for websites, too. When a site grabs your attention, take a second to check the source at the top. Some fake sites use names that sound trustworthy \u2013 like \u201cBoston Tribune\u201d instead of \u201cBoston Globe\u201d or \u201cwww.cbs.com.co\u201d instead of \u201cwww.cbs.com.\u201d You can click the \u201cAbout\u201d page to see where they\u2019re really coming from, use lists of known fake sites<\/a> and other fact-checking resources<\/a> to avoid getting played.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Boy<\/a>
Don\u2019t believe everything you see. imtmphoto\/iStock\/Getty Images Plus<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the evidence?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Evidence is what you show when someone says \u201cprove it!\u201d It\u2019s the details that support what a source is saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Primary sources \u2013 people or groups who are directly involved with the information \u2013 are best. If you want to learn about the release of a new game, the company\u2019s official accounts or channels would be primary sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondary sources are one step removed \u2013 for example, news stories based on primary sources. They aren\u2019t as strong as primary sources but are still useful. For example, most news on gaming site IGN<\/a> is based on information from game company sources, so it\u2019s a good secondary source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can a blogger or YouTuber be a secondary source? If their claims start by referencing primary sources like \u201cElectronic Arts says,\u201d that\u2019s good. But if they start with \u201cI think\u201d or \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of buzz,\u201d be careful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you want to believe it?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Emotions can get in the way of knowing what\u2019s true. Messages that make you feel strong emotions \u2013 especially ones that are funny or make you angry \u2013 are the most important ones to check, but they\u2019re also the hardest to ignore<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advertisers know this. Many ads try to be funny or make the things they\u2019re selling look cool because they want you to focus on how you feel rather than what you think. And being older doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re automatically better at spotting false information: 41% of 18-to-34-year-olds and 44% of adults 65 and older admitted to having fallen for a fake news story<\/a> in a 2018 study. Other research showed adults over 65 were seven times as likely to share articles from fake sites<\/a> as younger people were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So if you\u2019ve been eagerly waiting for that new game, and somebody posts a video that says it\u2019s coming out early, your wanting it to be true can make you ignore your common sense \u2013 leaving you open to being fooled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best question you can ask yourself when you\u2019re thinking about a message is, \u201cDo I want to believe this?\u201d If the answer is yes, it\u2019s a good sign you should slow down and check the source and evidence more closely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you\u2019d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com<\/a>. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And since curiosity has no age limit \u2013 adults, let us know what you\u2019re wondering, too. We won\u2019t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bob Britten<\/a>, Teaching Associate Professor of Media, West Virginia University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bob Britten, West Virginia University Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you\u2019d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com. How can I tell if what I am hearing is true? \u2013 Adam, age 10, Maui, Hawaii Have you ever heard a story so exciting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":32098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293,8025],"tags":[8913,6689,6786,13029,5682,730,1702,1617,13027,549,3832,308,5509,1523,13028,702,1791],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32097"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32097"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32108,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32097\/revisions\/32108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}