If a piece of online news tells you not to use your cellphone in the kitchen because the phone will explode, will you believe it? What about a message like this one: "Don't give money. Just share this message, and you will help a sick child"? We receive, read, and share all kinds of news stories from social media every day. However, some of them aren't true.
"Fake news" is a hot topic today, but it has been around for a long time. In the past, people spread fake news by word of mouth. Today, it is mostly shared online. It can be untrue articles, photos, or even videos. Though most fake news stories don't cause any serious problems, some can affect people's lives. During the COVID-19 crisis, lemon juice in warm water was believed to help against the disease. For a while, this claim was spreading quickly on Facebook pages in five languages. However, the claim was later proven to be wrong.
How can we tell if a news story is true? We can check the source of the story. Is the writer an expert on the topic? Can we trust the website? For instance, the lemon water story was posted on a social media site, not on a news site by a reporter or scientist. Moreover, we can go to fact-checking websites to find out the truth of a story.
Checking the truth of every piece of information sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it? To save a little time, it is a good idea to think critically about social media sites. Social media companies know your interests and use computer programs to suggest posts to you. Sometimes, shocking posts are just trying to catch your attention. Staying curious can help you find fake news before it spreads further.
Fake news has always been part of our world, and it is not going away. In the Internet era, developing the ability to understand and make good use of digital media is important. In the long term, it will be the best solution to the fake news crisis.
如果網上的一則新聞告訴你不要在廚房裡使用手機，因為手機會爆炸，你相信嗎？如果是像這樣的訊息呢：「不用捐款。只要分享這個訊息，你就能幫助一個生病的孩子」？我們每天從社群媒體接收、閱讀和分享各種新聞故事。然而，其中一些不是真的。
「假新聞」是現今的熱門話題，但它已經存在了很長時間。過去，人們通過口耳相傳來傳播假新聞。今天，主要是在網路上分享。它可以是不實的文章、照片，甚至是影片。儘管大多數假新聞報導不會造成任何嚴重問題，但有些可能會影響人們的生活。在新冠病毒危機期間，溫檸檬汁被認為有助於對抗這種疾病。有一段時間，這種說法以五種語言在臉書頁面上迅速傳播。然而，這種說法後來被證明是錯誤的。
我們如何判斷一則新聞報導是否屬實？我們可以查看新聞的來源。作者是該主題的專家嗎？我們可以信任該網站嗎？例如，檸檬水的說法是在社群媒體網站上發布，而不是由記者或科學家在新聞網站上發布的。此外，我們可以去事實查核網站找出整起報導的真相。
檢查每條訊息的真實性聽起來好像很費工，不是嗎？為了節省一點時間，最好對社群媒體網站進行批判性思考。社群媒體公司了解你的喜好，因而會使用電腦程式向你推薦貼文。有時，令人震驚的貼文只是想引起你的注意。保持好奇可以幫助你在進一步傳播之前就識破假新聞。
假新聞一直是我們世界的一部分，而且不會消失。在網際網路的時代，培養理解和善用數位媒體的能力很重要。從長遠來看，這將是假新聞危機的最佳解決方案。
- explode [ɪkˋsplod] v.
爆炸 - receive [rɪˋsiv] v.
收到 - fake [fek] adj.
假的 - spread [sprɛd] v.
（使）散播 - affect [əˋfɛkt] v.
影響 - crisis [ˋkraɪsɪs] n.
危機 - disease [dɪˋziz] n.
疾病 - claim [klem] n.
聲稱，說法 - prove [pruv] v.
證明 - source [sors] n.
來源 - expert [ˋɛkspɚt] n.
專家 - post [post] v.
（在網站上）發布（資訊） - information [͵ɪnfɚˋmeʃən] n.
資訊，消息 - suggest [səˋdʒɛst] v.
建議 - shocking [ˋʃɑkɪŋ] adj.
嚇人的 - attention [əˋtɛnʃən] n.
注意 - curious [ˋkjʊrɪəs] adj.
好奇的 - by word of mouth
口頭上的 - make good use of
善用，利用 - in the long term
長期來看
