--- title: Evaluating Sources in a World of Fake News description: Evaluating Sources in a World of Fake News image: https://blog.credoreference.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/laptop-464205_640-300x225.jpg --- ![credoreference](https://blog.credoreference.com/hubfs/Reference/Reference%20Logos/Credo%20Logos/Credo_Landingpage_header-Blog.jpg "credoreference")   - [Credo in Action](https://blog.credoreference.com/topic/credo-in-action) - [First Year Experience](https://blog.credoreference.com/topic/first-year-experience) - [Il Learning Community](https://blog.credoreference.com/topic/information-literacy) - [Affordable Learning Solutions](https://blog.credoreference.com/topic/affordable-learning-solutions) # Evaluating Sources in a World of Fake News Posted by [Credo](https://blog.credoreference.com/author/credoreference) on 11/22/16 3:28 PM [Current Events](https://blog.credoreference.com/topic/current-events), [Information Literacy](https://blog.credoreference.com/topic/information-literacy), [Uncategorized](https://blog.credoreference.com/topic/uncategorized) - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) ![laptop-464205_640](https://blog.credoreference.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/laptop-464205_640-300x225.jpg?width=300&height=225&name=laptop-464205_640-300x225.jpg)A growing number of Americans are getting their news from social media ([Pew Research Poll](http://www.journalism.org/2016/05/26/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2016/)), and increasingly, disreputable news sites are using these platforms to distribute fake news for financial profit. A key tenet of information literacy has always been the ability to evaluate sources, however the increased sophistication of fake news sites means that this skill is more important than ever. ### *Students don’t know what they don’t know* Credo [surveyed](http://marketing.credoreference.com/acton/attachment/5363/f-00b7/1/-/-/-/-/Credo%20Survey%20of%20Students%20and%20Faculty%3A%20Findings.pdf) thousands of college students and hundreds of faculty and found that students dramatically overestimate their ability to evaluate sources when compared to their professors. 54% of students felt confident that they could accurately evaluate sources; only 16% of faculty shared their optimism. ### *How to evaluate sources* Please feel free to share the following short video with your students and fellow educators. It outlines the five commonly used criteria for evaluating a resource: Authority, Accuracy, Currency, Relevance, and Objectivity. As the fake news story trends across all media outlets, print, digital, real, and false, many articles have been written about how to spot fake stories (like [this one](http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/18/tech/how-to-spot-fake-misleading-news-trnd/) from CNN). That’s all well and good for addressing our immediate concerns, however the real problem is much deeper: we aren’t doing enough to teach students information literacy and critical thinking skills. For example, the Credo survey mentioned above predates the fake news story by over a year. We will continue to be plagued by stories like this until we address the root causes for why people fall for bad information. [![ilmodsfooter](https://blog.credoreference.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/ILModsFooter.jpg?width=600&height=200&name=ILModsFooter.jpg)](http://corp.credoreference.com/product-services/infolit-modules.html) ### Subscribe to Email Updates ## Follow us and like us! ### [![Follow by Email](https://blog.credoreference.com/hs-fs/hubfs/flat_email.png?width=44&name=flat_email.png "Follow by Email")](http://www.specificfeeds.com/widgets/emailSubscribeEncFeed/VzVRak5yeThnRTgrY1lseUtIRlZmQVI1WkNDbGdldkxBWndST1RBYk9oMEcwS1lraFNVZHVKTkc3cDNndjBQN1p5KzdUTDVXL3VtdGRyUVdRb0tRVEFDZlR4djI5YUxPQUZ0aXU1WnR0Wi9XMmh2bkhvYWtzK2h5aXUvdzhXV0R8dHJCdklmdEIwM2dzaytjY1B1UTVIak9RYzIrZjI2a1NhTW1CbWE0a0hNMD0=/OA==/) [![Facebook](https://blog.credoreference.com/hs-fs/hubfs/flat_facebook.png?width=44&name=flat_facebook.png "Facebook")](https://www.facebook.com/credoreference) [![Twitter](https://blog.credoreference.com/hs-fs/hubfs/flat_twitter.png?width=44&name=flat_twitter.png "Twitter")](https://twitter.com/credoreference) [![LinkedIn](https://blog.credoreference.com/hs-fs/hubfs/flat_linkedin.png?width=44&name=flat_linkedin.png "LinkedIn")](https://www.linkedin.com/company/826388)  [Tweets by credoreference](https://twitter.com/credoreference) ### Recent Posts