On the Internet, fake tweets, deep fakes and AI-generated images abound. Alex Mahadevan, the director of the MediaWise project at Poynter, studies misinformation, how to detect it and how to combat it. Even he’s fooled on occasion. Newsrooms must now adapt to misinformation, as it becomes increasingly harder to detect and easier to spread. “It will affect every part of the newsroom, and it is not going away, and it will only get worse. [Transcript | Video]

4 takeaways:

➀ Most people don’t intentionally spread misinformation. “Normal people, the people you see walking through the streets today on your way to the building today, they do not share misinformation because they want to hurt people,” Mahadevan said. People primarily spread misinformation because they believe it is true. People creating misinformation often do so to elicit strong reactions from viewers, readers or listeners. Mahadevan said a family member might share misinformation about election fraud “because she legitimately feels worried about it and legitimately wants people to make sure their elections are safe, no matter how false it is.” People create misinformation that makes people concerned, so they spread information further. “Mainly, people want to help,” Mahadevan said. “They have an emotional connection or emotional reaction when they consume something online.”

➁ Shady news sources are getting harder to detect. “Pink slime” news sources include bylines and bios for reporters, but upon further diggings, those reporters are not real. Mahadevan used the example of the Idaho Tribune reporting that the Satanic Temple participated in a pride celebration. “It has bylines, it has bios, it has an About Me page,” Mahadevan said. “Essentially, the Idaho Tribune has everything that three years ago, anyone in media literacy would be teaching you.” However, the journalist listed as writing the article “was created out of nowhere.”

Companies like Chevron run sites like these to add credence to stories that favor them. However, many pink slime outlets write nondescript stories to build credibility before publicizing misinformation. “The thing with pink slime is a majority of the stories are going to be very, very, very, very boring,” Mahadevan said. Journalists should look into stories that don’t align with other coverage of the topic, but ultimately, “there’s no surefire way of identifying a fake news site.”

➂ Be extra careful about videos and images you see online. Mahadevan cited a list of questions you should ask when you’re analyzing visuals. Are you looking at the original piece of content? Who captured the content? Is this an original image? And who captured it? When was the content captured, the date, the time, location? Where exactly was the content captured? And most importantly, what was the intent or motivation? You may not be able to answer that final question, but Mahadevan said it should be a habit to ask all of them every time.

➃ Stay skeptical, not cynical. “Something that you’ll need to find a good balance for in your career is balancing that healthy dose of skepticism without going too far down the rabbit hole,” Mahadevan said. While misinformation is rampant online, questioning information too much can lead to conspiratorial thinking. Journalists should also be prepared to dissuade their readers from over-questioning.

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