The perpetual hype of media and advancement of technology has led to provide us with abundance of information. Search a word and you get ample of information on it. In today’s era, digging out news from a far away destination has no barriers, all we need is right way to find it out. On one issue, topic or subject there is exhaustive and excessive information available on internet. But biggest question asked about available excessive information is, whether it is accurate and credible or not. The countries are rapidly becoming media and technology rich but are they digitally literate or not, this question remains unanswered. The concepts which have rose up from last few years are fake news, misinformation and disinformation. Let us first understand what these concepts are:
The news stories or hoaxes created to mislead people to intentionally manipulate their minds are the fake news. They can be spread by traditional or digital media both. There are been incidents when a fake news became a reason for communal riots. At time they are also spread to exploit the beliefs of people and create hatred in their hearts. Misformation is deliberately spreading news without actually knowing if it is true or not. Usually people forward messages on social media to their peers and family without knowing its accuracy, which is a dangerous thing. More dangerous than misinformation does disinformation which means to intentionally disseminate any news know that it is a lie. The issue of fake news, misinformation and disinformation is growing into a complicated monster day by day. Unverified information has led to lynching in India. Efforts have been continuous to curb this problem but still not much has been captured. Any information or news that gets on air can be manipulated any way leading to riots. A lot of fake information has resulted to be extremely minacious. It can lead to disturbance in the harmony. During the time of pandemic a number of fake news have been spread related to precautions that can be taken to combat corona virus and boost the immunity.
The menace of fake news is omnipresent and there are various reasons why such news and information is spread:
- For propagating particular ideology and ideas and play with psychology of people.
- For political issues.
- To disseminate hatred and resentment
- To manipulate people
There have been various researches done regarding it. A study named ; Images and Misinformation in political groups: evidence from WhatsApp in India’ conducted by two MIT researchers came out with a conclusion that nearly 13 per cent of the pictures circulated in public- political WhatsApp groups in india are also the misinformation. This study was done between a period of 2018 and mid 2019 when major events like Balakot airstrike and Lok Sabha elections were held. Also according to a recent research and report by Reuters Institute for Study of Journalism says that there is 900 per cent hype in English fact checks published between January to March 2020. A lot of news spread through internet lacks factual accuracy and people believe it in no time and do not even make efforts to fact check it. Now all the major organizations have appointed fact checkers who have been working to combat the problem from its root because it is growing audacious day by day. The service of fact checkers at times become too exhaustive. To keep people away from misleading information or half information, which are very dangerous, it is important to debunk the false news whether spread intentionally or unintentionally. Fact checking has become and utmost requirement by all the media organizations because it is very easy to exploit and influence people.
How can we fact check any news of information using our own mobile phones?
The penetration of digital media is high but still people lack digital literacy. No one bothers to dig out the authenticity of news the received through their whatsapp, facebook or other social media application. But with time this is need of hour to heed and work up on. People believe in all of the information served to them through social media because they feel that is has come to them by their known, which cannot be fake at all. There are various platforms to check the accuracy and facts of misleading information that you might have received from internet. Here is access to thoroughly check the news before believing it. One can easily use these tips to know the authenticity of a new.
- The Google has an option of image upload; through this we can upload an image to check its authenticity. Once we upload it which is called reverse image search, the google will show us all the images similar to that. Not only the images but it will also provide us with various keywords which can help to further know the insight and accuracy of that news or information.
- When you read a story posted on any social media that it is misleading news, try to find out keywords from the article or story. When you come up with keywords, just try to search them on any search engine and it will surely help you to find the truth or that story.
- The video content can manipulate and misinform people. So the best way to find the reality of the visual and graphic content specifically videos is to focus on it and its authenticity by watching out the small visible places in the video which can give you an idea about the pace where it is shot.
- There are various fact checking platforms available for people on internet namely-
- Snopes
- Politifact
- Factcheck.org
- ProPublica
- Open secrets
- BOOM Fact check
These few detective works will definitely help you to catch hold of credible and non credible news. To make yourself more informed individual you must fact check before believing in any news or information. Fighting against this unchancy issue the individuals will have to be more digitally literate.