Melissa Zimdars, assistant professor of communication at Merrimack College, has proposed the following scheme for classifying websites. In addition, she has worked with others to assemble and classify a list of nearly 1,000 news sites, attached below.
|
Term |
Description |
Clickbait |
Sources that provide generally credible content, but use exaggerated, misleading, or questionable headlines, social media descriptions, and/or images. |
Conspiracy Theory |
Sources that are well-known promoters of kooky conspiracy theories. |
Credible |
Sources that circulate news and information in a manner consistent with traditional and ethical practices in journalism (Remember: even credible sources sometimes rely on clickbait-style headlines or occasionally make mistakes. No news organization is perfect, which is why a healthy news diet consists of multiple sources of information). |
Extreme Bias |
Sources that come from a particular point of view and may rely on propaganda, decontextualized information, and opinions distorted as facts. |
Fake News |
Sources that entirely fabricate information, disseminate deceptive content, or grossly distort actual news reports. |
Hate News |
Sources that actively promote racism, misogyny, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination. |
Junk Science |
Sources that promote pseudoscience, metaphysics, naturalistic fallacies, and other scientifically dubious claims. |
Political |
​Sources that provide generally verifiable information in support of certain points of view or political orientations. |
Proceed With Caution |
Sources that may be reliable but whose contents require further verification. |
Rumor Mill |
Sources that traffic in rumors, gossip, innuendo, and unverified claims. |
Satire |
Sources that use humor, irony, exaggeration, ridicule, and false information to comment on current events. |
State News |
Sources in repressive states operating under government sanction. |