Melissa Zimdars, Kommunikations- und Medien-Assistenz-Professorin am Merrimack College in Massachusetts hat ein öffentliches Google Doc mit dubiosen, irreführenden Clickbait-News-Websites erstellt. Anschliessend gibt sie nützliche Tipps zur Analyse von News-Websites und verrät, welchen News-Quellen sie selber liest. Fake-News-Websites teilt sie in vier Kategorien ein (via Researchbuzz: Firehose bzw. Quartz):
- “Fake, false, regularly misleading sites” which rely on “outrage” using distorted headlines and decontextualized or dubious information in order to generate likes, shares, and profits” (examples: Politicalo, AmericanNews.com)
- Websites that may circulate misleading and/or potentially unreliable information (examples: ConsciousLifeNews.com, CountdownToZeroTime.com)
- These websites sometimes use clickbait-y headlines and social media descriptions (examples: BipartisanReport.com, TheFreeThoughtProject.com)
- Purposefully fake satire/comedy sites that can offer critical commentary on politics and society, but have the potential to be shared as actual/literal news (examples: Christwire.org, TheOnion.com)