How to Identify "Fake News"

A story that appeared to report a terrible incident in which 16 members of a Japanese whaling crew were eaten alive by orcas (killer whales) was published in the satirical website "World News Daily Report.” Although most people visiting the site and seeing this story probably could recognize it as satire, when it was retweeted and posted on various social media sites it was mistaken by many people as a true story.

World Daily News Report (2014, May 7). Japanese Whaling Crew Eaten Alive By Killer Whales, 16 dead. Retrieved June 30, 2018, from https://worldnewsdailyreport.com/japanese-whaling-crew-eaten-alive-by-killer-whales-16-dead/

Using the excellent list of criteria for how to evaluate sources, from New Mexico State University Library (http://nmsu.libguides.com/c.php?g=381561&p=2585271), we can see that the most important question for quickly assessing the truthfulness of the killer whale story comes under the heading “Scope, Coverage & Relevance”: Who is the intended audience? Fortunately, the reader can find the answer to this question easily by scrolling to the bottom of the page where it says “World News Daily Report assumes all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content.” This tells us that the content is meant to amuse and entertain. After we know the purpose of the website questions about “authority” (i.e., the credentials of the author), the timeliness of the content, and issues related to bias, accuracy and quality are all irrelevant.

What may have led some people who read the article quickly to be fooled by it was that there was plenty of factual information about Japan’s whaling operations mentioned. Just to name a few, the factory ship was identified as the Nisshin Maru (which is accurate), and it was also correctly noted that Japan had lost a ruling in the international court forcing them to stop whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

If one did a Google search for information about killer whales eating members of a Japanese whaling crew, an article would be found from the fairly respectable British newspaper, Independent, with the headline “Japanese whaling crew 'eaten alive by killer whales, 16 dead' story definitely a hoax.” This shows the importance of checking outside sources. The Independent article points out how unlikely it would be for a representative of Greenpeace to say the following: "It seems that Japan just doesn’t give a damn about international law. The waste of life is always a shame, but the whales are not to blame here, they were only doing what they are born to do: kill for food." There were also spelling and grammatical errors in the article that should have hinted that something was wrong.

Below is a reference to the article in the Independent identifying the article as a hoax:

Eleftheriou-Smith, L. (2014, July 31). Japanese whaling crew 'eaten alive by killer whales, 16 dead' story definitely a hoax. Independent.co.jp. Retrieved June 30, 2018, from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/weird-news/japanese-whaling-crew-eaten-alive-by-killer-whales-16-dead-story-definitely-a-hoax-9639959.html

Disturbingly, some of those who had believed the story after seeing it reposted on Facebook or retweeted on Twitter thought that the Japanese whalers got what they deserved and rejoiced.