Fake news are unrealistic stories that have been created to attract the attention of readers. There are so many things happening around the world every day and, because of this reason it can be difficult to differentiate the real stories from the fake ones. That is why its so important to pay attention to the minor details when reading any article.

Fake news can be appealing to us because of the following reasons:

  • their titles sound both scandalous and legitimate
  • the format used with real news is easy to copy

Furthermore, some satirical sites are taken far too seriously in some cases as well.

Some examples of fake news can be seen in this article: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/dec/18/what-is-fake-news-pizzagate

If you would like to read about the effect of fake news around the world there is another editorial here: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/dec/02/fake-news-facebook-us-election-around-the-world

You can also learn about the topic in detail by reading this presentation: