Fake news – what do you not know?
Fake news – do you really know what they are? How do you spot fake news right at its headline? And do we need to screen through everything we read on social media today? Here’s some thoughts from a recent up close and personal session with the journalists themselves to find out more.
A quick Google on fake news and you’ll see some familiar names pop right up – Trump, Trump and Trump. Indeed he’s Trump-ing it all. And I’ll add on one mention each for Facebook and Twitter.
But it really does not matter who ‘owns’ the fake news. The truth of the matter is, we need to be discerning individuals – even if a story gets shared a million times or reposted on a reputable news source, it does not make it any more real. You, especially as a communicator, and a purveyor of meaningful and truthful storytelling, should get real when you pick out your daily read. Or share them via social.
I was recently at a closed-door media coffee session organised by PR Newswire where five speakers from the media and PR industries shared their expertise with the audience. The topic was around the latest PR trends and tactics – such as fake news, Big Data and pitching to international media. The speakers included: Everett Rosenfeld, Asia Pacific Editor at CNBC International; Lars Voedisch, Principal Consultant & Managing Director at PRecious Communications; Lena Goh, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at GovTech; Sujin Thomas, Deputy Editor at AsiaOne; and lastly, Rebecca Pazos, Interactive Graphics Journalist at The Straits Times.
I was especially there for Everett Rosenfeld’s and Sujin Thomas’ and session on: What is fake news? Given that fake news, beyond digital transformation and cloud, are such increasingly trending topics, I wanted to know what the buzz was all about. Everett mentioned that 2016 was the year of ‘fake news’. I feel like 2017 will be increasingly so.
Here are my 3 top takeaways and my thoughts:
#1 Fake news is not equal to misinformation
Fake news is definitely not misinformation. But, they are deliberate attempts to spread misinformation via any form of media. And why is the fake news business so lucrative? Because we know that provocative content spreads like wildfire. Viral content will offer the ‘publication’ more monetization opportunities – so, why not?
It’s evident that print media is depleting here among our local media pool and it’s so easy to get onto the Internet and build up the digital sphere of news. Content can be easily shared and re-shared online. Stories travel across geographical boundaries and through different time zones. There’s no stopping of the misinformation and if one’s news or fake news portal can garner more eyeballs, there’s no stopping the fake news perpetrators. It’s easy to make it more clickbait-y because humans in general are fond of such stories. And so they shall sell.
#2 Churnalism is one of the common sources of fake news
Nope, it’s not a type of journalism. Think of it as a press release sent out and journalists decide that they will do a copy-and-paste and run the entire release as a news story. Who knew that there was malicious intent to push out that fake news and ride on the journalist’s goodwill to run the entire release – word for word?
This is very common here in Singapore where we have a number of publications which run press releases wholly without editing or fact-checking. And it’s really not their fault. Time is always of the essence when it comes to pushing news out. If you’re the first to push out the story, you get more click-through and more readers onboard. Potentially, this leads to more shares and engagements with the readers. And hey, we as communications professionals should always be selling the story right. I think it’s all about professional integrity. The downside is that there’s no watchdog among us – PR agencies need to be honest about their stories while journalists do need to do their due diligence to verify their sources too.
#3 Grammatical and spelling errors can be deliberate attempts to make a fake story more real
Though grammar and spelling errors are common ways to spot fake news, they can also be deliberate attempts to make a story more real. At times, writers insert spelling errors knowingly to bring in the attention of readers and it makes the stories to some extent less goody-two-shoes and some flaws somehow bring out a certain level of ‘real-ness’. As the saying goes, imperfection is some form of perfection – that’s really just my saying. But, you get the point.
I quite like this line of thought – it just really confuses the reader to a point where you just do not know what’s real and what’s not anymore. It’s quite hilarious when you think about it and really look back at all the news you’ve read and try and sieve out the fake ones. For all you know, you might just have shared a piece of fake news on Facebook and not realise it.
But, all hope’s not lost. There are ways to pick out fake news. Some include checking the news source – credible or dubious? Also, if the story only ran in that publication – highly-likely that’s a piece of fake news. Do check in on reputable news sources as well to see a similar story ran. According to Sujin, if the story ‘raises both your eyebrows’, big chance that it’s fake!
So, the next time you read something, ask yourself, does it raise both your eyebrows? And even if you’re not the creator, why are you sharing a piece of fake news just because there are millions of shares or your friends are circulating them to you? Thanks to Sujin, my last share here is to strike sites like The Onion and New Nation off your list of news sources. Don’t ask me why.
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