Critical thinking is considered as a key to get success in your academic career as well as in your professional career. In this era of science and technology, most of the students are facing lots of struggles because they are not able to process the information that is coming towards them. Nowadays, fake news can become the cause of confusion, skimming and cognitive biases for the students. Therefore, it is necessary for the students to process the news before adopting any news. For this reason, students have to use critical thinking. Here, experts will discuss how students can think critically to get saved from fake news.
Be of strong mind
You should have high-integrity mental habits because high-integrity mental habits are helpful to you to get interaction with online news. If you have enough resources that you can easily attest the reliability of an online resource, it is good. On the other hand, if you don’t have enough resources to attest the reliability of an online resource, you should try to use critical thinking. With the help of critical thinking, you should assume that a particular resource is wrong and suspicious and you should try to verify it from other resources. While verifying this resource, you should try to check the reliability of information and outlet of this resource. This verification method will provide you with a clear idea either this resource is providing true news or fake news. After verification method, if you feel that a specific resource is providing true information, you can also consider it truly means to get further information.
Know the content types
To get an idea about the type of content is a basic concept for the students and they can easily learn this concept from their teachers and parents. Its reason is that during your student age, you will have to come across various types of news like news reporting, analysis, opinion and advertising etc. You should have enough skills that you can easily get an idea about the type of news without considering its label. Its reason is that lots of viral news is without labels. While knowing the types of news, you should also get an idea which types of news are authentic and reliable. This is also the best technique to sort out true news.
Use common sense
According to the logicians, students should also try to learn about information bias before considering the news true or false. Its reason is that if a specific story is incredibly happy for us or sad for us, there are lots of chances that our brain will accept it true. This is known as information bias. Therefore, we should train our mind in such a way that he should accept anything truly on the basis of the logic rather than bias. Students should also keep in mind that if they are verifying news which is viral at the large scale, it is easy for them to get an idea about the reliability of this news because lots of reputable resources are taking about it.
Cui Bono
It is a Latin phrase and it means that who is getting benefits. It is also the best practice for the students to get an idea about the reliability of the news. Before applying this method, students should try to practice it with their teachers and parents. Their teachers and parents can assign 10 to 15 resources of fake news. After assigning these resources, they can tell them who are getting benefits from these resources. When students apply this technique in order to differentiate between reliable and fake news, it will be easy for them to differentiate the true news from the fake news.
Stay positive
While differentiating between fake news and reliable news, we should stay positive. Its reason is that if we are considering news from a negative point of view, we will not be able to accept the reliability of news. Its reason is that there are lots of news agencies which are providing reliable news from more than 20 years. Therefore, we should give respect to the news of these agencies. Moreover, there are also some new news agencies which are providing true news. We should also try to give respect to these news agencies.
Spread the word
It is also a fact that most of the fake news spread due to our fault. Its reason is that we don’t try to stop fake news. After analyzing the news, if you consider that particular news is fake, you should try to stop it. For this reason, you should start a conversation with the person who is sharing this news and ask him that he is sharing the fake news. If he is not giving importance to your discussion, you can also report him.
Ask some questions
You can also get an idea about the reliability of news by getting answers to some specific questions. These questions are given below;
- When this news was published?
- When this news was updated?
- Is this news relevant to your needs?
- Is this news fulfils your needs?
- Is this news published by an authentic author and publisher?
- Is this news supported with the help of suitable examples and evidence?
- Is there any kind of bias in this news?
- What is the purpose of sharing this news?
Use 5 C’s of critical consuming
While getting an idea about the credibility of news, you should also consider about 5 C’s of critical thinking. For this reason, first of all, you should take an overview of the context of the news. Secondly, you should get an idea about the credibility of the resources. Thirdly, you should take an overview of the construction and bias of the resources. Fourthly, you should corroborate these resources with other reliable resources. At last, you should compare this news from different perspectives.
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Author Bio:
Robert Fawl is a professional Content Writer based in London, UK. He is an author and blogger with experience in writing different academic assignments. Currently associated with Dissertation Writers UK. If you need dissertation writing services to write your dissertation, you can contact him.
