The Southampton Rotary Club is helping people spot misinformation.
President Tony Sheard says they launched the Spotting Fake News Bookmark Initiative last week, which provides helpful tips to spot misinformation online.
He says the initiative began when one of the rotary club’s members saw a post on social media advising how they can spot fake news.
After talking about what the member saw, he says they decided to produce a bookmark as a quick and accessible guide to identifying unreliable news sources, as well as thinking critically, and verifying information.
“We developed a little check list of things which might be useful for people to guide them when they are looking at news reports, social media reports, and posts like that to help them determine if it is true or is it false,” says Sheard.
He adds the bookmark also features the four-way test, which assists all rotary activities by asking if the information they are looking at is true, is it fair to all concerned, will it build goodwill and better friends, and will it be beneficial to all concerned.
“It is useful in a number of different areas, not just simply news,” says Sheard.
He finds people being able to differentiate between what is real to be a problem.
“I have got friends who have shared media releases and they found out they were not true so they are a bit embarrassed by doing things like that,” says Sheard.
Sheard adds they also plan to continue addressing fake news and misinformation.
These bookmarks are available at the Port Elgin and Southampton libraries, as well as Larkspur Books, or any Southampton Rotarian.
Sheard adds the Rotary Club will also be distributing these book marks to local schools.
