It’s a new world for news – “breaking news” is no longer just a 10 PM television broadcast. Anyone can contribute to the news cycle through social media. While it’s done wonders for the speed and convenience of accessing what’s happening worldwide, it’s also a double-edged sword.
Misinformation is rife on the internet – whether it’s a devious spin on existing news, a misunderstanding of the facts, or an outright lie. So, to tackle this, we’ve taken a look at the problem, and given you the easiest solutions possible to circumvent the issue.
The misinformation problem
Misinformation isn’t just wrong information. It’s all about sincerity. When someone shares information they believe is true but isn’t, that’s misinformation. It’s not a crime to be wrong – there isn’t a single person out there who knows all the facts. However, misinformation is everywhere in vast amounts. Accessing trustworthy, accurate information online is a nightmare when you don’t have the right sources.
Did you know?
Reuters research suggests attitudes are shifting away from receiving news directly from news platforms, with people preferring social media. Despite this, social media still hasn’t gained the trust of the masses.
While news items distributed through traditional media usually pass several layers of fact-checking and verification before publication, there’s a far lower bar to submitting information to social media. All that’s necessary for someone’s post to be hot news is to be widely shared. You can’t fact-check every post you come across, even if you can start telling between what’s being posted sincerely and what’s been cooked up by an AI or signal-boosted by a bot.
There’s a difference between misinformation, which is false but sincere, and disinformation, which is both knowingly false and written by the author to achieve a certain effect via social media. This could be anything from deliberately misleading recipes designed to cause harm, to nation-state interference.
With that in mind, let’s check out some of the ways you can avoid falling foul of misinformation:
Don’t react
Much of social media is predicated on emotional reactions. It can be simplified to “you see something you like, you click the “like” button, and the algorithm serves you with more things you like”. However, this feedback loop works on us in a variety of ways. With misinformation, our natural reflexes are being hijacked to engage in a way that furthers the dissemination of that misinformation. Even if someone disagrees with a post, there’s a chance that they’ll still interact with it to argue against it.
The more likely a post is to generate negative reactions, the more likely it is to spread. Benign misinformation tends not to travel very far because it doesn’t create engagement. If you post a cake recipe that’s wrong in an innocuous way, people are likely to simply point out you’re not using enough flour or ignore it. Either way, everyone goes on with their day.
However, when you post a controversial news story about a popular celebrity, you get a perfect storm of emotions from both sides. This is the environment in which misinformation thrives, and whenever you see particularly engaged users arguing over a story it’s probably time to do some digging and investigate the facts. This moves us on to…
Check your facts
Truly understanding any news story requires an open mind and time set aside to go fact-hunting. If you’re thinking about sharing something you’re unsure about, take a second to hit up a search engine and get some personal fact-checking done. Read into the sources, see where the social media claims originate, and pay attention to who’s providing the claims.
Social Media means everyone can be a journalist, but not everyone can be a good one.
This is a holistic approach. You can’t just look at the author and call it a day. You have to look at their record, who they work for, who they’re citing, and who’s funding their employers. For news sites, heading straight to their “About Us” page gives you a great place to work from. If it’s missing and you can’t find any working contact details, you’re probably dealing with a less-than-trustworthy website.
It’s not for the faint of heart, but by performing some fact checking you’re already doing more real “news” going through this process than anyone who mindlessly shares a social media post. Maybe that’s the point. Social Media means everyone can be a journalist, but not everyone can be a good one.
Identify the agenda
The news isn’t free. Every news site has to make money somehow – many follow the old newspaper method of selling advertising space to third parties. Others have sponsors that contribute towards their finances. Either way, a news site is incentivized to push as many people toward its site as possible, which can manifest in a few behaviors that encourage misinformation.
For a start, there’s how a story is told. A news site might portray an event in a certain way because it’ll perform well amongst its target demographics, even if it’s a bad-faith interpretation. They might even specifically look for misinformation that infuriates that demographic because it’ll drive more clicks.
Social media isn’t immune to this effect, either. A user on X could post something deliberately inflammatory because they know it’ll mean more engagement, and therefore a bigger cash payment from Twitter. Wherever you get your news from, thinking about the economic angle usually helps clear up the motive.
Go to Google
Once you’ve gone through all the other steps, it’s time to start pulling on other threads through a search site like Google. Are other websites reporting on the story you’ve read? If they aren’t, why not? For the sites that are, go through the same process and come to your own conclusions. You might notice that all the sites have similar features – including political affiliation, funding, or unclear verification policies.
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