Writer’s Blog 6: Navigating Through A Digital World of Fake News
When it comes to our consumption of news, we have evolved from picking up a paper at a local stand or even consistently turning on the television to watch new and developing stories. Today, especially amongst the younger generations like my own, we get the vast majority of our news through social media. While many may argue that this form of information is wrong, getting news online is actually quicker, easier, and more accessible.
There is no right or wrong way to get your news. There are simply different platforms and approaches to do so. It really doesn’t matter if you choose to read the paper, watch the television, or scroll through Instagram because all news sources have an agenda that influence the information they share.
Why is this important? The agenda of a certain source can help you as a reader and consumer decipher and judge if the source you are looking at is credible. This is what is important when it comes to our consumption of news, not the platform from which the news is coming.
It is important to note that agenda is not the same as bias. Agenda refers to what a news source or organization is set up to do (Los Angeles Valley College Library, 2022). Whereas bias is about the preexisting opinions and experiences that influence the way someone or an organization views something (Los Angeles Valley College Library, 2022). While bias and agenda may look the same from the outside, they are very different, and understanding the differences between the two can make you a stronger reader and a better consumer of information on the web.
One of the biggest issues we face in this age of digital media is fabricated or fake news. A large portion of these fake or even satirical stories that circulate across the web and gain tremendous amounts of publicity are coming from obviously uncredible sources with poor agendas. By using your own critical digital literacy skills, it becomes much easier to spot these fake stories and determine the agenda of each source you interact with.
When determining the validity of these sources, one of the easiest ways to find their agenda is to look at their mission statement. Most credible publications make their mission statements or purpose easily accessible to the reader, if you can’t find it or find one that seems off, steer clear. Another easy way to determine a source’s agenda is to look at the general layout of the website you are looking at. The vast majority of news organizations separate their stories into segments such as opinions, politics, local news, etcetera. If that doesn’t seem to be the case for the source you are looking at, you may want to click away. The last and easiest way to determine the credibility and agenda of a source is to look it up on Wikipedia. Doing that will tell you the history of the source, why it was created, its circulation, and much more valuable information that will help you determine if the story is worth reading.
When it comes to online news, you should feel confident in your trust in a source. You should never be second-guessing or have to stop midway through a story to determine if it is true or not. The job of the reporter or journalist is to bring and write about current events in an unbiased and ethical manner. If you doubt that credibility for even a second, or if the source is not sharing what you thought it would, there is a high possibility you’ve stumbled across a story that isn’t true.
One of the great things about digital media is the fact that it is democratized, meaning that we can hold news sources accountable when they produce something that doesn’t align with the values and agenda they share with the public. Doing our own research and holding our news sources accountable for their actions improves both our own digital literacy and the reputation of the news organizations we rely on for our information.
