Discerning Fact from Fiction on the Internet: An Everyday Person’s Guide to Fact-Checking

Last updated on: October 15, 2016 at 3:56 pm by Rebecca Florence Miller

Discerning Fact from Fiction on the Internet: An Everyday Person’s Guide to Fact-Checking 2016-10-15T15:56:29-06:00 Rebecca Florence Miller

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Be very, very, very skeptical about blogs.

(Haha, I know. This means be suspicious of me. But I guess you should. I mean, heck, you don’t know me.) Because anybody can have a blog, and because there are no editorial standards for facts, a blogger can say virtually anything. You should distrust and vet stories you read on blogs. You should consider what evidence the blog is citing. You should click back through the links the blogger uses to support their story to see if there is any substantiation. This kind of vetting takes more time than a quick Google search. But it’s really important. There are a ton of blogs out there that specialize in clickbait titles (that then earn the blogger advertising dollars, and yes, this goes on on Patheos too).

Clickbait might earn money but there is no accountability to truth in clickbait blogs. People don’t even realize how much they are being manipulated. They may read and believe the initial story, or just read the title and accept it. Meanwhile, if they took the time to click back through the links the blogger cites, they would find truth had been stretched or misrepresented. If you don’t have time to do this checking, that’s fine, but please don’t believe or accept blogs’ claims without doing it. And please definitely don’t share blog articles that you haven’t checked out. Read critically. Try to disprove the blogger’s argument. And then you will have a strong basis to stand on if you do share, because you’ll actually know what you’re talking about.

So that is my short intro to fact-checking internet memes, rumors, and quotations. Let’s all try to be more critical readers so that truth can flourish!

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Community discussion guidelines:

Because this is a Christian blog, the things I’m talking about will obviously be topics that people feel strongly about in one direction or another. Please keep in mind that this is a place for substantive, respectful, constructive conversation. All perspectives are welcome to discuss here as long as all can treat each other with kindness and respect. Please ignore trolls, refuse to engage in personal attacks, try not to derail the conversation into divisive rabbit trails, and observe the comment policy listed on the right side of the page. Comments that violate these guidelines may be deleted. Vulgar remarks may result in immediate blacklisting. For those who clearly violate these policies repeatedly, my policy is to issue a warning which, if not regarded, may lead to blacklisting. This is not about censorship, but about creating a healthy, respectful environment for discussion.

P.S. Please also note that I am not a scientist, but a person with expertise in theology and the arts. While I am very interested in the relationship between science and faith, I do not believe I personally will be able to adequately address the many questions that inevitably come up related to science and religion. I encourage you to seek out the writings of theistic or Christian scientists to help with those discussions.

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