Fake News and Social Media
Social media has made it possible for people to share any type of information and news. That information can include facts, opinions, personal information, like and dislikes and as well as fake news. It is so easy to post anything publicly in social media. There will be people who believe anything that is posted if it seems believable. Fact-checking those posts is very important now in the digital age.
What is Fake News? Fake news can be described as published material that can cause people to believe information that is false and misleading. In chapter 3 of the Verification Handbook, this includes photoshopping, fake social media accounts, fake articles and people claiming content as their own and publishing it on different types of platforms. Fake news spreads disinformation thus influencing quality, cost and reputation of the people included in those posts. The Future of of the Deepfake website mentions that public figures are more likely to be “fakeable” than private figures. This includes politicians, actors and influencers. This is very prominent know in elections and campaigns.
There can be great consequences of spreading fake news and articles concerning elections and campaigns. People can easily believe news stories and documentation that has been falsified. Campaigns and reputations of credited people can be destroyed and stained. This can lead to the mistrust of the people. This does not only happen to politicians but to highly known people as well. Verification Handbook chapter 2 mentions not to trust honest witnesses and always seek documentation. Whether it may fact-checking sources, photographs, interviews, videos and documentation used. Some consequences of not fact-checking and producing fake news can involve the law, misleading huge crowds of people and leading them to believe such information.
An example of such is the production of fake news stories produced from websites such as Reddit, TMZ, and even posts published on Twitter. Here is one example of a possible fake story. Here I used the process of verification which includes:
1. Provenance: Is this the original piece of content?
2. Source: Who uploaded the content?
3. Date: When was the content created?
4. Location: Where was the content created?
The top circle indicates the posts unique identification code and the bottom circle indicates the post’s date and time stamp. I was able to find this tweet through the use of TweetDeck which helps users find specific tweets and keywords.
Using these steps of verification is very essential to a journalist, not only to verify information form their sources but also to make sure they are also not spreading false information and news. As a journalist always make sure the information you are publishing is correct and always fact-check.
