Fake news is the challenge of our time
For the past several years, I’ve been following the news to an increasing amount. Like many people, I’ve noticed a rise in the amount of misinformation and disinformation being pushed out to the public. The ease at which these stories can spread, particularly through social media, has had a part to play in the proliferation of fake news.
When thinking of the motivations behind spreading fake news, sometimes this can be attributed to a genuine error or intentional/unintentional misrepresentation of facts or events, but it may also be driven from monetary reasons, since sensationalism sells and getting more clicks means more attention and more money. There is also the potential for political motivates to drive someone, or a state, to push fake news. The clearest example of this being Russian interference in the 2016 general U.S. election to favour Donald Trump as the preferred candidate, as was established by the U.S. Intelligence Community.
Clearly this is a growing issue, but what does it mean from a democratic standpoint?
For one, the problem of disinformation has muddied the waters with regards to public trust of independent media, to a degree casting a doubt on ALL news. This has led some to argue that the news cannot be trusted and should therefore be disregarded. On face value, it’s generally a good idea to be skeptical. After all, one shouldn’t believe everything they hear or read. However, taken too far, this can also become problematic, e.g. if you begin to cast doubt on all news reporting, no matter how much evidence may be behind it.
“Democracy hinges on an informed citizenry” – Ben Franklin
I recently heard this quote during a presentation on fake news by Brittany Melia, a fellow student in the program who is also working toward her MIS. This line resonated with me strongly, and made me reflect on what I consider important. I agree that in order to fight against fake news, we have a responsibility to be informed and help others become better informed. Specifically, by developing our collective information literacy skills.
One place to start is by asking ourselves (or our friends and family) the following questions:
- How do I consume my news? Do I rely on a single news source, or many? Do I consume through the internet, blogs, social media, newspaper, major news outlets?
- Is my news source trustworthy? How do I spot fake news? Have I looked up the author’s credentials, other works, etc?
- Is there evidence to back the claims made in the news articles I consume? Do they cite other sources (are these peer-reviewed)? What are their data sources?
- Do my news sources have political bias, if so does it lean left or right in the political spectrum?
It’s important to recognize our own biases. We all have them, to a degree, but taking the time to reflect on these can help keep yourself more balanced and aware of why you might be predisposed to react one way or another to a certain news story.
Political bias vs. journalistic quality
In my Information Literacy in the 21st Century (ISI 6300) course, we looked at the above graphic on political bias vs. journalistic quality by Otero (n.d.). This graphic depicts various news outlets and where they might fall in this spectrum.
Again, this represent one person’s opinion on where these news outlets would fall in this spectrum. But it’s a good starting point to get the conversation going about fake news, our biases, and how we being conscientious of how we consume our news in the future. After all, the fight against fake news begins with all of us.
Other works I have done on fake news: