Separating the Fact from the Fiction
Do you trust the news you read on Social Media?
As the digital world continues to advance, more and more people are turning to social media channels to read the news. But considering that anyone can report on news via social media, this comes with an issue; how do we know that what we’re reading is true?
The fact is (see what I did there?) that there are news stories and social media posts every day that stretch the truth, and unfortunately for us, it’s difficult to know if what we’re reading is trustworthy.
In a report by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, just 24% of people said that social media does a good job of helping them separate the fact from the fiction. Consequently, an investigation by Kantar found that just 28.9% of people in the UK actually trust social media as a news source.
The problem is that the stories that aren’t quite the truth are sometimes the ones that snowball and go viral, because social media is so powerful. People often fall into the trap of trusting what they read just because they have seen the headline shared multiple times, only to eventually find out (or not) that it was not exactly factual.
This is most likely why the trust in the media is at an all-time low.
It is therefore increasingly difficult to separate the fact from the fiction when it comes to news on social media. The pace of information sharing on these networks is so fast that rumours can slip through the net of proper fact-checking.
After the Las Vegas massacre, social media users flocked to their feeds to shout about conspiracy theories; that the police were lying and that there was more than one shooter in the hotel, for instance. But of course, the police knew the truth and there was only one shooter.
“Although mainstream media is not trusted, it is still trusted twice as much for separating fact from fiction as social media.” — Nic Newman, lead author of the sixth annual Digital News Report.
In light of this, here’s 5 tips to help you separate a factual news story from a fictional one:
1. LOOK AT THE URL
If you don’t recognise the URL, or it looks slightly dodgy, the likelihood is you should be wary of the content.
A fake news site with the URL ‘abcnews.com.co’ tricked readers into thinking it was the real ABC News website with its similar branding and near on identical URL. It contained fake stories which were believed by many.
2. EXAMINE THE WEBSITE
If you’re not sure whether the URL is real or not, have a closer look at the website itself and ask yourself these questions:
Does it look real and professional?
Are there other out of the ordinary looking headlines?
Do you recognise any of the authors or sources used?
Is the website easy to use?
Does it show the correct date?
If it doesn’t feel like a real news website to you, it probably isn’t. Trust your gut!
3. BE MINDFUL OF THE SHOCK FACTOR
So you’ve just read a news story — how shocked are you on a scale of 1–10?
I’d say if you’re on a 6 or above you need to be wary of trusting the story. If it seems extremely out of the norm and is quite frankly shocking, there’s no harm in being cautious and making sure it is trustworthy before investing yourself in it and sharing it with others.
4. CHECK AGAINST OTHER SOURCES
If the news story is real, you should be able to find other sources that are reporting on it too. When real news is circulating, media sources will be racing to report on it and publish a story.
4.1…AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF GOOGLE
In order to complete tip number 4, you might need to take advantage of Google.
If you google key words or the topic and you come across at least three well-known publications that have reported on it, you can probably trust it.
If you can’t find it anywhere else, watch out, it might be fake!
5. USE A FACT-CHECKING WEBSITE
When in doubt, you can always fact-check what you’re reading. There are credible fact-checking websites specifically for this such as Snopes, FactCheck and PolitiFact — all of which are for fact checking a variety of issues and topics, not just political matters.
Whilst social media does provide some trustworthy news, it is also a platform in which lies or opinions can be disguised as the truth rather easily. So keep your wits about you and use these tips to help you separate the fact from the fiction!
