The Bald Eagle American Patriot is designed as a visual, interactive  experience to help inform the public of the tactics and technologies used in the creation of fake news, click-bait, and misinformation.

By creating AI-generated examples of fake news articles we hope to showcase the need for news literacy, and to provide the tips and tools to identify misinformation for a better informed society.

One way of identifying fake news is with a better understanding of image manipulation.

**Google Reverse Image Search:**

1. Visit Google Images website. https://images.google.com/

2. Click on the camera icon in the search bar.

3. You have two options here:

   – Click on ‘Upload an image’ and then ‘Choose File’. Locate the image file on your computer and upload it.

   – Click on ‘Paste image URL’ and then copy and paste the URL of the image you want to search.

4. After uploading the image or the image URL, click the ‘Search by image’ button.

Google will then return search results that match or are similar to your image. These results may also contain links to websites where the image appears, or might have appeared in the past.

**Reverse Image Search on Mobile:**

For mobile devices, the process may differ slightly. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Open your web browser, go to images.google.com.

2. Tap on the three horizontal dots or the settings button (depending on the browser) and check ‘Desktop site’. This should load the desktop version of Google Images.

3. Now, continue from step 2 of the Desktop instructions (Camera icon and so on).

**Reverse Image Searching using other platforms:**

Apart from Google, there are also other platforms such as TinEye, Yandex, Bing’s Image Match, where similar steps can be followed to perform a reverse image search.

One of the best ways of identifying fake news is by learning more about the source of the news you’re consuming.

Reading their ‘About Us’ page can provide you with a lot of helpful information in validating the source.

Frequently found are:

• When they were established. Example: The Wall St. Journal was established in 1889.
• Their editorial team. How many people are on it? What are their backgrounds? Can you contact them?
• Have they won any journalism awards?
• Is there an email for corrections? Tips? Questions?
• Is there a FAQ?

Any legitimate source for news will proudly display this information, and while the sources that don’t display this information, or don’t even have an ‘About Us’ section may not be nefarious… You may want to do a simple Google search to see if other outlets are carrying a story before you share it online.

The obvious answer is sharing an article in your social media feeds, but there’s other ways unsubstantiated news & information can spread online.

Simply reading a headline that is false or inaccurate can embed that information into your memory, and if you didn’t actually read the article, or take into account the source, you may find yourself spreading a false narrative.

Comments.

Read any article on a hot button issue, and then go read the comments. Often the entire thread is hijacked and steered away from the entire topic of the article.

It’s horrifying how we communicate with one another online. It’s worse than road rage, it’s comment rage.

This is where facts fly without any evidence to back them up.

Nearly everyone believes what they’re writing is true. Yes, there’s some disruptive players (trolls), but many of these people believe their information is credible.

They read it somewhere is usually what they’ll say in response to “How do you know it’s true?”

But when asked “where?”, they often can’t remember, or they’re ashamed to name their source.

This is sometimes due to our fast consumption of online information, confirmation bias, and repetition of the same narrative.

So while misinformation can spread by sharing an article that is bias, or not credible, it still allows the general public to see the source of the information.

A comment, meme, or doctored image doesn’t have an “About Us” to help us understand the veracity of its claims.

There are people who mistrust the mainstream media, and to them “journalism” is a dirty word, but the question is quite simple, “If you don’t get your news from the news… where do you get your news?”

• Check your sources.
• See if any other outlets are carrying the story?
• Back up your social media comments with sources.

We’re a better democracy when we can freely share news and information.

We’re a better society when we can do it without being angry, or divisive.