Reality Check
This public awareness program, created in partnership between MediaSmarts and the Facebook Canadian Election Integrity Initiative, focuses on authentication of online information.
News you can use
Online news is one of the hardest things to verify. Sometimes early reports that turn out not to be true still circulate on the Internet, and people may spread false reports for commercial or malicious reasons, or even just for “fun.”
Verifying Political Information - Introduction
There are four reasons why it’s especially important to engage critically with election news – and political news in general.
Authentication and citizenship
Being well-informed – and being careful to only share good information – are essential parts of being an active citizen in a democracy. It’s important to think before you share political information with family and friends – especially during an election.
How Do Canadians Get Their News?
If a news consumer reads a headline from The Globe and Mail while searching Google News, is the story from Google or The Globe? What about if a friend posts the story on Facebook; is the story from the friend, Facebook or The Globe? How can the complexities of what is meant by “source” in a converged news environment be accounted for?
Sorting Fact from Fiction
The changes in how news is consumed (and produced) described above have also made it harder to verify if a particular news item is accurate – and made it easier for misinformation to be spread, either intentionally or unintentionally.
Decoding the News
“Be skeptical, not cynical.” Lori Robertson, managing editor of Factcheck.org