With an election here in B.C. just a few months away, people are going to emerge from their summer news-cocoons to seek out information on local candidates and provincial parties.

Most people don鈥檛 pay much attention to the nitty-gritty of provincial politics at the best of times. A recent poll showed that 30 per cent of people in this province didn鈥檛 know that BC United didn鈥檛 know that the party had a previous identity 鈥� which has led to United asking for a phrase like 鈥渇ormerly known as the BC Liberals鈥� to appear on ballots this October.

Now, if you鈥檙e reading this newspaper, you probably already knew all about that party name change, and the controversy that followed it.

That鈥檚 because you regularly seek out a source of reliable news (thanks for making us part of your news intake, by the way!).

Not everyone does this. Not everyone knows how to do this. Large parts of our society are vulnerable to misinformation.

So if you or someone you know is being bamboozled by headlines claiming that Kevin Falcon has been abducted by aliens, or that David Eby is secretly three kids in a trench coat standing on each other鈥檚 shoulders, give them a few pieces of advice:

鈥� Check the source. Was that a real news site? Have you ever heard of that news outlet before? Is the web URL kind of off, like CNN.corm?

鈥� Check other sources. Is anyone else 鈥� like major journalistic outlets 鈥� reporting the same thing? A big enough story will get picked up elsewhere.

鈥� Are there supporting facts in the story? Are there quotes from politicians or officials, info from public documents, statistics from scientific papers or studies? If you鈥檙e suspicious, you can check those out, too.

鈥� Stay skeptical. Just because it鈥檚 on the internet, it isn鈥檛 necessarily true. Actual journalistic outlets work hard to nail down their facts before they go public 鈥� and even they can get things wrong, or be fooled now and again, though a good outlet will be quick to correct its mistakes.

In a world where we get our news from snatches of info found everywhere from Reddit to Minions memes on Facebook, seeking out reliable news and information sources is more important than ever. 

You wouldn鈥檛 eat something without knowing what it was, and you should treat the information you consume the same way.

鈥� M.C.