In light of “fake news” and all the damage it's been doing, it’s important to be able to distinguish truth from false facts.

Much like your librarians told you when you were little check the source. Is it coming from a reputable news source? Or perhaps it is an opinion piece on a blog. Understanding who is writing it and why is key. Often news stories are written persuasively or right or left leaning. This means that things can still be used for information, so long as you are extracting the facts, and not just the point the writer is trying to get across. In addition, betting your information by checking with multiple news sources is a good way to validate things.

Is it satire? I know this seems almost like a joke that you would need to check, but it can very possibly lead you to false conclusions. The Onion does a great job of making a link on your timeline look very real. Similarly, the Borowitz Report is released by the New Yorker. The publication in itself is extremely reputable, but the satire section is there to comment on things humorously, not to be taken at face value. In order to understand satire, you actually need to be up on the news. Being informed makes the pieces a lot more funny.

Finally in reference to “alternative facts” waiting to hear backlash is probably the best way to deal with this one. Having a presidential administration state things that are not true repeatedly does seem to be a new one. By keeping an eye on what politicos and career civil servants have to say about things is probably the best way to determine what’s true. If nothing else, these people have a career to back up their credibility.