Fake news has been on Maggie Farley's mind further back than 2016 when President Trump brought the term into the vernacular.
Farley, a veteran journalist, says we've had fake news forever and that "people have always been trying to manipulate information for their own ends," but she calls what we're seeing now "Fake news with a capital F." In other words, extreme in its ambition for financial gain or political power.
"Before, the biggest concern was, 'Are people being confused by opinion; are people being tricked by spin?' " Now, Farley says, the stakes are much higher.
So one day she says an idea came to her: build a game to test users' ability to detect fake news from real.
Voilà, Factitious. Give it a shot. (And take it from us, it's not as easy as you might think!)
The game's interface mimics the dating app Tinder, which made swiping famous. On a phone, players swipe left when they think the article in front of them is fake, and right when they believe it's real.
Depending on how you swipe, Factitious provides feedback. Whether your swipe was correct or incorrect, whether the article cites sources that can be checked, whether the story includes direct quotes from credible sources.
To Test Your Fake News Judgment, Play This Game
Illustration: Chelsea Beck/NPR
