Behind Local News Weekly: Taking the fight against misinformation to readers — and why we did it
Hello,
Welcome to your weekly round-up from Behind Local News.
A bit of housekeeping first — the weekly jobs roundup is back, and further down in the newsletter with 12 new jobs going in local news this week.
This week’s main read is from Rebecca Whittington, the online safety editor at Reach. Rebecca has written for us about a campaign which took the fight against misinformation during the General Election to readers — and urged them to play their part too.
We’ve also got our good news round-up for the week, but first some of the headlines to have been published on Behind Local News since we last emailed.
Thanks for reading,
Behind Local News
New this week:
“I can’t argue with a balance sheet.” Sadness as online regional magazine closes
The QT set out with the intention of providing independent and politically-neutral journalism for the North East of England, and was launched almost six months ago by well known senior figures from the industry in the region.
Editor calls for more local democracy reporters after successful General Election coverage
The editor behind The Edinburgh Minute has urged the new government to prioritise expanding the Local Democracy Reporter scheme.
Reporting on an election you’re too young to actually vote in
Ena Saracevic, at the age of 17, found herself reporting on a General Election she wasn’t old enough to vote in. A live news reporter for the Press and Journal in Northern Scotland, Ena covered the Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey election count.
City website launches campaign to stand up for local area
A website has launched a campaign to celebrate the city it serves following a string of criticism against it.
Good news this week:
- Three of the 40 pieces of legislation announced in the King’s Speech had been campaigned for by local newspapers. The Manchester Evening News fought for Martyn’s Law — in memory of a man killed in the Manchester Arena bombing, and for Awaab’s Law, named after a little boy who died in a mould-filled flat. The cause of his death only came to light thanks to a Manchester Evening News investigation.
- In Liverpool, the Echo’s 30-year crusade alongside relatives of the Hillsborough Disaster victims marked an important milestone when Hillsborough Law was announced by the King. The fact it takes a law to ensure public bodies do what should expected of them was rightly called out by Echo editor Maria Breslin.
- Back in Manchester, and Manchester World has unveiled a new look and new approach, promising to cover ‘ordinary Mancs doing extraordinary things.’
Now hiring
- Trainee Reporter, Northumberland Gazette
- News Editor — KentLive
- Local Democracy Reporter — MyLondon
- AI-assisted reporter- Berkshire
- News Editor — Newsquest Worcester
- News Editor — Newsquest Oxford
- Crime and Court Reporter — Newsquest Worcester
- AI-assisted reporter — Warrington/Bolton
- Multimedia reporter — Tindle Wellington
- Reporter — Newsquest Media Group — Scotland
- Discover Editor — Manchester Evening News
- Digital Reporter — Lancashire Telegraph
Why we urged readers to #checkyoursources
By Rebecca Whittington, Online Safety Editor, Reach
Fake news has been around since the days of the town crier, when propaganda from London was bugled to residents of far flung villages and towns.
The invention of the printing press saw tussles over the truth in written materials and in Victorian London the penny dreadfuls distributed fiction that looked like fact.
But it was in 2017 when US President Donald Trump popularised the term, so often did he describe critical coverage by recognised news providers as ‘fake news’.
In 2019 the UK general election was influenced by the spread of fake news online. The Covid pandemic saw false information contribute to more than 800 deaths, according to the World Health Organisation, and fake news and disinformation has been platformed and promoted on social media to sow division and chaos.
Political parties have been repeatedly criticised for dressing propaganda materials as local newspapers and fake content disguised as news produced by trusted local outlets spreads like wildfire among connected communities.
In fact, the term ‘fake news’ is now so embedded within our society that my eight-year-old used it to describe my pronouncement of bed-time just the other night.
So, why is it, when there is a clear societal knowledge that fake news exists, that disinformation still poses such a serious threat to our democracy?
The answer is simple: we might all know that fake news and disinformation occurs online, but the concept is a distant catchphrase that to many online users is disconnected and irrelevant to their own lives.
Not only that, but we know the disinformation that causes the most damage is that shared among groups who trust one another, often without the participants even realising they are spreading false information.
And in this fast-paced, information-heavy world, it’s tricky to know how to recognise disinformation.
That’s why ahead of polling day, Reach launched a campaign to help online users check and verify the sources of the information they see online.
The #GE2024CheckYourSources campaign ran in the ten days prior to polling day across our brand social platforms, as an online editorial in the Mirror and the Daily Record and as simple graphics in the pages of all our local news titles in the UK.
The campaign video and graphics advise online users how to quickly check and verify if the information they are looking at online comes from a trusted source.
Tips include:
- Is there a link back to a trusted news website or source?
- Check the headline appears in an online search
- Check the story against the journalist’s professional profile
- Check the logo and text on the post is clear and up-to-date
- Check the date on the published story
- You can report fake news on most social platforms
The campaign was designed to give online users the knowledge needed to spot fake news and report it — essentially providing tools to identify and drive down the spread of disinformation online by asking people to stop and check before liking and sharing.
The initiative was part of a wider strategy at Reach to help drive down disinformation and online threats connected to the election. The plan also included digital hygiene workshops which helped journalists protect their personal information to reduce impersonation, doxxing and hacking. Reach also provided fact checking training for journalists prior to the election.
I know from my work as Online Safety Editor for Reach that impersonation profiles and posts spreading fake news under our trusted brand logos would be virtually impossible to get ahead of entirely. And I also know that however much we would like to, we cannot control what other people choose to do online.
