Fake news, due to its very nature, is a stream that cannot be controlled.
Instead, combating against it may be a way forward, though not the ‘best’ way.
Any established mainstream media can come under serious scrutiny if it makes errors in its reporting, and be held directly accountable. This, in a way, works positively for such institutions as they are among the ‘trusted’ due to their accountable nature.
On the other hand, posters of fake news are not obliged to reveal their sources, be ‘correct’ on their facts nor even reveal their identities! They are free to post whatever they create, earn their shares of ‘likes’ and then, get away since they rarely face consequences. The reason? Their strong appeal to emotions, novelty and attention grabbing designs. Though a higher number of people visit real news websites in comparison to the lesser numbers headed to fake news websites, people tend to spend longer times browsing fake news sites-thus, fake news sites have a higher rate of retention of attention.
Such a playing field is uneven and works to the advantage of the fake news presenter since the public usually appears to be smitten by fake news, in comparison to real-world news.
“..People may therefore feel compelled to share fake news because it contains information that they think others do not yet know. (As confirmed in a study by Pennycook et al-2017)
This leaves the door open for established news organizations to upgrade their news presentations in more timely and attractive ways-lack of which hooks the consumers to fake news despite their knowledge that these are fake news.
Though it is expected –and believed-that the public are more discerning and are aware of truth of the news presented, the reality is that they may not be ‘so aware’. This leaves the door open for established news organizations and journalists to present the truth of the matter and counter the false, fake news items that are being shared. Since people tend to promptly re-share content they received from persons they know (irrespective of whether such content are true / verified or not), the level of personal knowledge and experiences of such individuals to discern the reality of the shared content, plays a decisive role here. Therefore, it is important to spread awareness of the reality of the events that are trending online. Each individual cannot be personally expected to find out the reality of latest trending events. This is a task for the social media platforms-to be precise, their news algorithms.
We believe that the marketers have a significant role to play here. Most fake news streams have a competitive edge as they are viewed more due to their attractiveness despite not being totally true. The higher views present ad-promoters with a great place to advertise their wares. There needs an organized and a collective call from fake news combatants aimed at such marketers, making them aware of the damaging nature of fake news and withdrawal of their advertising from such fake news platforms so that sources and platforms of Infodemics are dealt a blow.
For a user of social media, how can they identify if a content they receive is fake news / misinformation or if they are true?
Four initial steps are recommended:
a. Pause and think carefully about the content before sharing
b. Beware of news that is unusually sensational or striking! Most of the time, they are fakes.
c. Check the source-is the news originating from a suspicious web site or URL
d. The author- an unknown author with a funny name tag?
