Fake and biased news are two different things. Fake news is without basis or fact.  Biased news presents facts, but does so selectively and/or with language that sensationalizes.

Almost all writing has some form of implicit bias, but the best researchers and journalists strive to acknowledge and eliminate both bias and disinformation in their own work.

The following are a few tips on how you can do this too.

  1. Consider biases related to the tribe, gender, ability, orientation, and other protected classes. Question and debunk stories, lines of questioning, and language that perpetuates bias.
  2. Women often face the challenges of being stereotyped, objectified, and hypersexualized. Be mindful of avoiding these tropes and debunk them whenever possible. 
  3. When choosing a nominee photo, ensure that it looks professional and doesn’t play into any negative stereotypes.
  4. Ambition in women is often portrayed as negative and praised in men – avoid playing into this sexist stereotype.
  5. Use gender-neutral language to help stop gender bias. 
  6. Use businessperson, chairperson, congressperson, etc
  7. Avoid using Mrs. unless it’s preferred by the nominee, use Ms. because it doesn’t designate marital status. Single women have historically been seen as undesirable or unworthy. 
  8. Use the proper title, such as Honorable, Senator, Secretary
  9. Reporting on disinformation rather than debunking it can help spread it. You must call out disinformation as unfounded, a conspiracy theory, debunked, dubious, unlikely, misleading, a lie, false, etc. in the headline if you must write about disinformation. 
  10. Avoid covering “trending” topics on Twitter as reflective of broad public support. Twitter “trends” are based on many factors and do not necessarily mean that a large number of users are participating in the conversation.
  11. Think about your personal biases otherwise known as confirmation bias. This is the tendency to search for, interpret, favour, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one’s prior beliefs or values.
  12. Explore AfricaCheck, PesaCheck, PigaFirimbi, AFPCheck, and StopReflectVerify among other fact-checking platforms that are helping to debunk misinformation and disinformation. 
  13. Check out TinEye and Reverse Image Search for images you doubt their authenticity and Amnesty International’s YouTube Dataviewer or download the InVid browser extension for videos. 
  14. Whenever you are suspicious of an article, check the URL and read some more articles on the same website. Some platforms are quite good at sneaking in a few false articles amidst many true or accurate articles, to deepen the believability of the fake ones. Also do check the URL clearly to ensure it’s not cybersquatting, where it mimics a true or genuine website.