There has been a lot of talk recently about fake news in social media. There is some, deliberately intended to deceive, but the much bigger problem is advocacy cloaked as journalism, that distorts the story in order to advocate a particular political or social agenda.
Here are some examples of recent headlines that are probably NOT news:
It's worse than you think
The electoral system was rigged — for Donald Trump
Trump releases seven-point health care reform plan . . . and it's excellent
The secret is understanding whether the source has an editorial bias. MUCH of what we see coming down our news feeds is actually advocacy for one side or the other.
How do you tell? It's really not hard. If the headline or story contains a value judgement or opinion that is NOT attributed to someone, it is advocacy, not journalism (even if it resembles a news story).
The only things that do not need to be attributed in journalistic writing are facts that are "widely known or easily verifiable." But in promotional writing using journalistic style can stretch this "widely known" criteria to the breaking point, making for the subtle implication that "everybody else knows this but you."
The complicating factor is that you can't just base your evaluation on the publication or website. Many legitimate news sources also carry editorials, guest columns, and other opinion pieces.
You have to make an article-by-article evaluation!
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