It is no surprise that Cat Talk has been kept very busy by the surplus amount of “breaking news,” but something that may be shocking is the amount of stories that are needed to be filtered through due to their complete falsehood. One of the main culprits in the circulation of untrue stories is social media. Junior Maddie Francis comments on social media users by stating, “Just about anyone can formulate false information and spread it.” This fake news being spread can cause people to believe false information to be true. In fact, during the last month of the presidential election, over ninety-two percent of the news circulating on social media was later deemed to be false.

 Can you really trust what I just stated? What if I told you that I, the trustworthy journalist, just made up that statistic in an effort to prove my point? That is the problem with news sources and their readership today– there is too much trust. Luckily, there are ways that you, the well-deserving reader, can navigate through reliable and unreliable sources.

 The first tip is reiterating on what was already pointed out, which is to try not to get all of your news from Twitter and Facebook. While they can be a great place to get quick news, it may not always be true news. Realize that social media is a place to share different interpretations of current events, not the events themselves. Before you retweet or share anything that may make you look like an ill-informed idiot, do something as simple as a quick Google search. It can be surprising how much of the “news” shared on these sites can be almost completely fabricated.

 This should be a given, but please look at the source you are pulling your news from in the first place. If the writer does not know the difference between “it’s” and “its,” they are probably not supplying you with the most dependable story. Also, if a source seems to be too right-winged or left-winged, it is probably more of an opinionated blog post than an article. Some good nonpartisan sites are PBS, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, and The Independent. Try to avoid sources like MSNBC and Fox News for their very obvious bias, and steer clear of sources like Huffington Post whose light bias may be good at confirming left-winged opinions, but not good at refuting right-winged opinions. Finally, while we all love them for their funny quizzes and memes, do not trust Buzzfeed as a legitimate source. Ever.

 Sometimes these sources can provide false information due to bias or misinformation. Luckily, there are nonpartisan sites such as Pulitzer Prize winner Politifact that debunked over 750 claims during the 2008 presidential election, as well as popular site Snopes.com, a website that focuses its attention on rebuking news that originate from memes.

 The last tip is more of a lifestyle choice, and that is to make sure to follow a variety of news sources. That means focus your attention on nonpartisan sources previously mentioned, but also tune into both Fox News and MSNBC every once in awhile so that you can form a more educated opinion. Senior Dreysan Johnson weighs in by saying, “Many people have different perspectives and outlooks. It’s important to get a variety of viewpoints so information isn’t one-sided.” While not all citizens need to be politically moderate, their news sources definitely should.