The Fake Online News of Football Transfers
Journalists are creating fake transfer stories by sacrificing accuracy for speed and relying on unverified sources while reporting in the online world.
It’s that time of the year again when the transfer window opens in the footballing world for January. You’ve been reading all the stories and reports online on how your club is going to sign that key player which is exciting stuff. Unfortunately, the signing never happens. All those stories turned out to be fake news with the information coming from dodgy online sources.
The term fake news is described as:
“False or misleading information that is created, presented and disseminated for economic gain or to intentionally deceive the public.”
Goalkeeper, Keylor Navas’ false transfer from Real Madrid to Arsenal this window is a key example of how fake news has plagued the footballing world.
Starting with: The Sun and The Mirror jumped the gun reporting on Arsenal making a £14 million bid for the player. Arsenal manager, Unai Emery later dismissed the report as “not true”.
Then: Navas posted an Instagram Story saying “Thanks for everything” to the Real Madrid fans. The message spread to Twitter with users reporting it as his goodbye message as he leaves for Arsenal. Journalists bought into this source of information and used it to create a story that the move was happening.
In the end: Navas signed a new one-year deal to stay at Real Madrid. Everything reported on was fake news with every source used lacking in credibility.
Let’s look at how fake stories like this are created.
Speed over Accuracy
The rise of the internet and social media has changed the shape of journalism into a rapidly competitive environment. No longer do journalists have to wait for news to be printed as the online world allows for instant publication. News can even be spread virally through a simple retweet or share allowing stories to reach thousands if not millions of readers quickly.
Technological advancements have put sports reporters under extreme pressure to break news as quickly as possible or risk having their story published by another media outlet. The need to be first ensures a publication can earn its keep from the number of click-throughs an article gets to the gaining of new followers online.
However, Drew Hancherick claims the rush leaves reporters with an ethical dilemma:
“Should a story be published before it can’t be verified by multiple credible sources?”
The answer should be NO.
Fack checking is a vital pillar of journalism that should not be overlooked for the sake of speed. Journalists are there to distinguish the truth from rumour and gossip. Carelessly failing to verify information can cause misunderstandings and damage from the creation of false news like Navas’ supposed transfer. Placing speed over accuracy is a disservice to readers who seek the truth in transfer news which also hurts the overall standards of journalism.
It’s sad to see the dilemma being solved quickly for some journalists during the transfer period with fast and wrong reporting beating slow and right for economic gain.
Social Media Rumours
Social media hasn’t just sped up the news process its also given anyone the ability to post information on a potential transfer. It sounds great when a journalist can’t get to a scene fast enough or doesn’t have the resources to cover the story. However, reporters looking to use these sources, which they often do, should use extreme caution. Research by Corrêa and Madureira found that the credibility of information provided by the public was a significant problem.
Any member of the public, even you, can hop onto Twitter and claim to be an ITK (In the Know) account during the transfer period and post made up information that a journalist could use. Combining this with the speed journalists are required to work at can see these false rumours seep into reporting if fact-checking is not carried out. There are no repercussions for the public source whereas a professional journalist could put their credibility at risk if false.
Tony Harcup outlines three steps that journalists should take before publishing to achieve objectivity:
- Assess the credibility of sources
- Look for evidence
- Do not publish anything believed to be untrue
It seems simple enough.
In the example of Keylor Navas, journalists are not taking the proper time to investigate how truthful sources are. I find it lazy that journalists will rely on information distributed by a member of the public and not follow it up by trying to contact the clubs, player or agent to see if it holds any truth. News loses objectivity as the journalist has decided not to consider or represent the facts leading to the construction of fake news.
Is The Damage Already Done?
Not every transfer story is fake, and more then often journalists are trying to track down false leads that do appear on social media even if it does take hours as Scott Reinardy and Wayne Wanta say. One piece of fake news is all it takes to not just damage the reputation of that specific journalist or publication but football journalism as a whole.
Football fans are suffering because they don’t know what to believe — they want honest and accurate information from accountable journalists but are provided with stories based on lies. A survey by the Eldeman trust barometer found 65% of respondents believed outlets sacrificed accuracy to be the first to break a story.
“When it’s no longer in the interests of the media to worry about whether what they’re saying is true or not, everyone loses.” — Steven Chicken, Planet Football
Even Manchester United fans now have a webpage dedicated to how reliable certain sports journalists are when it comes to transfer news.
You can see the trust between journalists and readers eroding with any transfer story being heavily scrutinised for its factuality regardless of a reporters credibility. The way some sports journalists are opting to work in the online world means fake transfer news is here to stay.
Be sure to follow me on Twitter and Facebook to stay up-to-date on the current issues in sports journalism.
