Fake news: Be critical

Use the skills you’ve already developed to evaluate other types of information resources. Ask yourself, “Who is the author?” “When and why was this written?” “Is it linked from sources that I trust?”
Adopt the skills of fact-checkers and “read laterally”—i.e., quickly jump outside a news source to judge its credibility. For more on this method and its effectiveness, see Lateral Reading: Reading Less and Learning More When Evaluating Digital Information.
Remember that satirical news sites like The Onion and The Borowitz Report abound on the web. Before you believe a piece of news that seems incredible, ask yourself if it could be a joke.