Back in the good old days, when we had only two TV channels, a handful of print publications, and good old AIR with Binaca Geetmala , fake news wasn’t an issue at all. The news we consumed was curated for us by a group of professionals who worked tirelessly to report it objectively and accurately (we hope). The landscape is vastly different today. Blogs, podcasts and vodcasts allow anyone to publish fake news, and use social media to promote it. Leading thinkers would have us believe that the fake news pandemic could be responsible for steering entire elections, shaping opinions in society and exacerbating falsely-held beliefs.
Arguably, these fake news stories affect the more credulous amongst us into making decisions based on false information. The problem is being seen as so acute that Facebook and Google are hard at work on tools to protect us from this scourge. You might already have seen a notification on your Facebook news feed about protecting you from fake news.
So how do we keep from being overrun by fake news? Here’s a list of the top five things to look out for, to help sift fact from fake:
What’s the source: If the story is from The Hindu or the BBC, for example, then you can rest assured that it’s not fake. But, if it’s on a blog or website you’ve never heard about, be sceptical. See what else they are supposedly “reporting” on, and that should help you make up your mind.
Look for other reports: Are any other well-known news outlets reporting the same story? If no one else in the news world is talking about the story, that’s a good indication that it’s fake.
Beware the headline: Fake news stories often have outrageous headlines, designed to grab your attention and make you click on them. If the headline sounds incredulous, then it might well be fake news.
Is the author reliable: Who wrote the story? Is it a journalist with other stories under their belt, or is it someone using a fake name or publishing anonymously? A quick web search will tell you how credible, or not, the author is.
Are you sure it isn’t a joke: There are a lot of websites out there that post joke stories that are meant to be false and funny (like The Onion or The Daily Mash ). A quick check of the website will help you gauge the tone of the stories and whether it’s a parody site or not.
This is not a comprehensive list by any means, and fake news can catch us all out. One easy way to help stem the flow of fakery — the next time you come across something incredibly unbelievable, obviously hate mongering, or downright false, please don’t share it until you’ve verified it’s not fake. You’ll be doing everyone on the Internet a huge favour and stymieing the flow of fake news.
