The challenge I chose from Mike’s blog was about a claim that Pepsi and other food companies used aborted fetal tissue in their products. I’ve included a screenshot of the claim below. Mike’s 4 Moves and a Habit quickly debunked this claim.
Snopes.com settled the issue at Step 1 of Mike’s 4 Moves for fact checking. Snopes.com is a very useful website for fact checking. The website includes any viral claim, chain email, Facebook hoax, etc. and then provides information and links to assess whether it is True, Partially True or False.
I proceeded to Step 2 to find the original source of the hoax. I clicked on a CBS news article from 2011 (the year of the original post). This website had a link to the original article. Bingo!
For Step 3, I looked for lateral sources, most of which were newspaper articles and fact checking websites. The most useful site was Snopes.com
For Step 4, I actually didn’t get lost! I found what I needed in step 1.
As an older online user, I know I am not always savvy at discerning something that has been manipulated (picture) or is completely false. I have definitely forwarded emails that I found later to be hoaxes – definitely embarrassing. What I gained the most from Mike’s 4 Moves is to search for what other people have found and to look for the original source. I think if I do those two steps, I can weed out most incorrect or false information.