Health Information Week - Media Literacy

Health Information Week is a national, multi-sector campaign promoting high-quality information for
patients and the public.

The theme for today's Health Information Week post is all about media literacy. 

How do we know what health news we can trust and do we know if it is accurate? This is a key health issue with the rise of social media and these media literacy resources aim to give patients the skills to make these judgements.

Checking the news yourself

• FactCheck: How to spot fake news (video) www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkwWcHekMdo
• Full Fact: Fact checking toolkit https://fullfact.org/toolkit/

Health news already checked

• Full Fact: Health https://fullfact.org/health/all/
• Health Feedback: https://healthfeedback.org/
• BBC Reality Check (not just health news): www.bbc.co.uk/news/reality_check

Sharing news and social media

• UK Government: Share Checklist https://sharechecklist.gov.uk/
• Poynter Institute: 10 tips for verifying viral social media videos www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2018/10-tips-for-verifying-viral-social-media-videos/ 

We have also updated our guide to good quality sources of information for patients which you can find on our web site here.

You can find a complete list of resources around media literacy with more links and including games and activities for children on the Health Information Week web site here.

iHealth Facts - health claims fact checked

iHealth Facts is a web site aimed at the public where you can quickly check on how reliable health related claims are and what the evidence is to support them.

The site also aims to help the public to use evidence to make their own health related decisions.

You can use the site to search for any health related question, as well as seeing the reply to previous enquiries.

Questions are answered with a simple summary, as well as having links to the research and an overview of the evidence used.

The site is run by Health Research Board-Trials Methodology Research Network (HRB-TMRN), Evidence Synthesis Ireland and Cochrane Ireland.

Fact checking sites - sorting the facts from the spin

With a general election weeks away, and claim and counter claim appearing in the media and online, coupled with the rise of "fake news" and "deep fake" videos, it is can be difficult to sift out the facts from the spin (or even misinformation).


However, there are some sites who do their very best to ensure factual analysis of the days news and deliver an unbiased, un-spun analysis.

We recommend starting with Full Fact. They are an independent charity who provide impartial analysis of news items and political claims and who even push to have misinformation corrected. Full Fact are transparent about their funding and the team who run the organisation and carry out the analysis. They are a great place to start if you want to get to the bottom of a news story.

There are also some other fact checking sites you may find useful:

• Media Bias / Fact Check is a useful site that follows a strict methodology to assess the biases and the accuracy of media sources. It is a US based site, but also includes reviews of lots of UK based media outlets (e.g. The Daily Mail). A useful resource if you come across a site you are less familiar with or want to get a feel for the accuracy of your preferred media company.
  
• Fact Check run by Channel 4, attempts to look at the truth behind news stories and the claims of political parties and "hold them to account"
  
• BBC Reality Check as with Fact Check, the BBC service was set up to check and debunk misleading stories posing as real news.

Of course not every story will be covered by a fact checking service, so you will sometimes have to use your own judgement. Full Fact have developed a handy fact checking toolkit which offers simple practical tools to help you identify the accuracy of a story.

Web site of the month: That's Nonsense!

It has been a while since we last featured web sites that allow you check the facts of an internet news story (see our post from January 17), so we thought it was about time to feature another.

That's Nonsense is a UK based site that "deals with debunking Internet hoaxes, hearsay, rumours and fake news". The site promises unbiased reporting and links to reputable sources.

The site features different sections covering:

• Latest Internet related news covering things like scams, circulating rumours and privacy issues
• Facebook related scams 
• The latest Internet based hoaxes and rumours
• A series of tutorials aimed at helping you improve your online privacy, avoid scams and stay secure on the Internet

Of particular interest to social media users (and you can also follow them on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter), That's Nonsense is a useful resource to help you spot the hoaxes, avoid the scams and stay safe on the Internet.

Web site(s) of the month - fact checking

There is an increasing amount of fake news out there, especially on social media, as well as Internet and email scams. Indeed the term "post truth" was the Oxford Dictionaries word of the year.

In this context, how do you know if the Tweet, Facebook post or email you get contains genuine information, a hoax, a joke or something more sinister?

It is difficult sometimes to distinguish the fake stories from the real, so the answer is to fact check, and there are plenty of sites that will soon tell you if it's real news or a hoax. Here are a few we think are worth a look:

• Hoax Slayer - Particularly useful for email and social media articles, Hoax Slayer is a really up to date source of information for those dodgy emails you sometimes get asking you to do something or the viral hoaxes you see again and again on social media.
  
• Snopes - Great for checking on a news stories to see if they are real, Snopes sorts the truth from the urban legend.

• Full Fact - An independent, UK based fact checking organisation, Full Fact are less about hoaxes and more about checking the facts behind serious news stories, legal issues, the claims of political parties and the like.
  
• BBC Reality Check - Offers a similar service to Full Fact but just focused on news stories. They also have a Twitter account you can follow for regular updates.

So if you receive an email or see a Tweet you can't quite believe, it may be because you can't actually believe it. One of these sites might just clarify which it is...