Fake News: Become a 'CrossChecker'

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If ever there was a time to double check information gotten from social media, the time is now especially with the advent of technology and digital tools where anyone is allowed to create and disseminate information.

A recent study analysed tweets from 2006-2017, specifically 126,000 stories (all debunked by fact-checking agencies) tweeted by about three million people more than 4.5 million times.

The study however showed that a fake news item has got 70 percent possibility of being retweeted than real news, also the top 1 percent of fake news ultimately reached between 1,000 and 100,000 people (while the truth rarely reached more than 1,000 people).

The spread of fake news is becoming alarming and it is important to know that you too can be a cross checker.

Although spotting fake news is not very easy, there are some simple factors one could always look out for:

 Take a closer look at the headline.

If the claims in the headline sounds unbelievable, do a quick verification. Look out for official pages of the subject being spoken about. You could also put one or two calls across just befor resharing the story.

 Look out for previous activities of the person or handle that posted the news.

It is important to do a background check on your source. Go through the profile to see what kind of stories and post the person is interested in. How long has the account existed. Does the name relates to the picture? Does it carry a female name and a male description? If the story comes from a site you have not heard of, check their “About” section to learn more. These are very simple things that one should look out for before believing and re sharing.

Do a number comparison on the retweets and likes

It is important to pay attention on the number of followers, retweets and likes. This is because the information might just be a sponsored one.

 Check the source quoted

Ensure that the story comes from a source with a reputable track of accuracy. Like an higher authority. Check to confirm whether there a evidences. Lack of evidence may indicate false news.

 Look out for other reports on the same subject

If no other news source is reporting the same story, it could indicate that it is false.


 Watch out for errors

Fake news are most likely to contain grammar and spelling errors.

Confirm the photos or video used in illustrating the news

You can search for related videos or photos online to ascertain the exact date and location it was taken.

  You can do all these using some digital tools such as reverse image search, Hoaxy, geolocation, Google map etc

 Trust Nobody and Doubt everything until you verify

Comments

  1. Naijabaseonline29 November 2018 at 02:14

    Nice thesis. Kudos to the admin of this blog. I hope others can find this information useful as well

    ReplyDelete

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