A-Z OF FAKE NEWS FOR A 21ST CENTURY LEADER
MEDIA LITERACY AS A PANACEA FOR LEADING AGAINST FAKE NEWS
Delivered
at IDISD Virtual Training Centre on 5th July, 2020
By HANAFI, Olanrewaju Rabiu (Executive
Director, IDISD)
“Only You Can Stop the Spread of Fake News. It’s
not enough to ignore bogus stories. Help slow their proliferation”
-
Will Oremus
Introduction
Fake news is as old as man itself
as government and individuals have been guilty of spreading lies to either
promote someone or a cause or to dent the image of another person or nation.
Evidences of fake news and warning against it can be found in scriptures such
as Quran and Bible. For instance, Quran 24:15 said,
When you received
it with your tongues and said with your mouths that of which you had no knowledge
and thought it was insignificant while it was, in the sign of Allah,
tremendous.
Sarah Churchwell believes that
President Woodrow Wilson popularized the phrase 'fake news' in 1915, though she
was not the first person to use it in the US during that century.
Fast forward to 21st century, fake news
has risen to become one of the major menaces as government, company and
individuals have been found guilty of it. Having been widely aided by social
media, fake news has found its way to traditional media like TV, Newspaper, etc
Fake news is distorted
information or absolute lies presented as a real report. It is constructed with
the sole aim of deceiving and confusing people, thus misleading people easily
without them demanding to verify the authenticity of the news
(yourdictionary.com/fake-news).
Stroud (2020) referred to fake news as hoax news which is published
false information made to seem as true and genuine news. He explained further
that fake news is spread through the use of social media and further spread by
word-of-mouth with aim of misleading its consumers. One of the more colorful definitions of fake news comes from
PolitiFact and it goes as thus: "Fake news is made-up stuff, masterfully
manipulated to look like credible journalistic reports that are easily spread
online to large audiences willing to believe the fictions and spread the word (cited
in Stroud 2020)."
According to 30secondes.org, fake news refer to
fabricated news which is formed without any reference to anything real- but it
looks like real news so as to make people fall for it. It is important to
always know that the information of news is false but it seems true.
Forms
of Fake News
Fake news come in various forms just as normal news do. According to 30secondes.org, forms of fake news include:
1. Political fake news
2. Spectacular fake news (a hot news but false. E.g. Aisha Buhari’s hand bag is the most expensive in Nigeria)
3. Fake news that stages a celebrity
4. Fake news that creates fear
5. Fake news that promotes racist ideas
6. Fake news that sustains sexist ideas
7. Fake news that sustains myths and conspiracies {Ad-Dajjal (Anti-Christ) is now on earth}
8. Pranks ( a deliberate joke made to fool people and attract views)
9. Satires (false news meant to make mockery of someone or something. Did you see the picture with caption, ‘Ilorin people seeing traffic light for the first time?’
10. Opinions and allegations presented as facts
11. Certain types of messages received by private messaging (This is very common in whats app. E.g. Send your CV to wwwww@kdkddl.com to apply for shell opening)
12. Certain types of YouTube videos (Documentary created on you tube which though looks real is not the reality)
13. Manipulated videos featuring celebrities
Categories
of Fake News
There are several means
of disseminating fake news. In the 21st century, advocates of fake
news uses Website, Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, SMS, Word of mouth to spread
fake news. However, Melissa
Zimdars (as quoted in research guides’ website) categorizes fake news into 4
broad categories as stated below:’
- Category 1: Fake, false, or regularly
misleading websites that are shared on Facebook and social media. Some of
these websites may rely on “outrage” by using distorted headlines and
decontextualized or dubious information in order to generate likes,
shares, and profits. (Examples are messages like, “I just won a grand gift, click xxx.grand.com to claim yours”)
- Category 2: Websites that may
circulate misleading and/or potentially unreliable information
- Category 3: Websites that sometimes
use clickbait- headlines and social media descriptions. (e.g. ‘See the man feared by all Nigerian
Politicians’)
- Category 4: Satire/comedy sites,
which can offer important critical commentary on politics and society, but
have the potential to be shared as actual/literal news.
No single topic falls under a single category - for example,
false or misleading medical news may be entirely fabricated (Category 1), may
intentionally misinterpret facts or misrepresent data (Category 2), may be
accurate or partially accurate but use an alarmist title to get your attention
(Category 3) or may be a critique on modern medical practice (Category
4.)
Some articles fall under more than one category.
Assessing the quality of the content is crucial to understanding whether what
you are viewing is true or not. It is up to you to do more findings to
make sure the information you are about to consume is good.
In summary, it is evident fake news cut across many types of
news e.g. political, health, celebrity, etc. It includes fake adverts such as
job adverts; some even create fake websites that will gather people’s data for
the use of its creator. In Nigeria, due to the high unemployment rate, many
creators of fake news employ the tactics of placing fake job adverts in duping
people or collecting their data.
Some fake news includes alarming titles that does not
correlate with news on the news page.
Motives for Creating and Spreading Fake News
Forrest Stroud believes that the mission of fake news content is not just for financial gain or at least not completely for profit — but rather for luring visitors into a website and then getting visitors to virally spread the false information or hoax news through many ways.
Some of the reasons why people
create fake news include:
1. To make revenue from ads by generating traffic into their website
2. To get shares, comments and likes on their social media post
3. To dupe or con people with the purpose of obtaining their money
4. To obtain people’s private data to be used for some other purpose
5. To make people rise for or against a cause, ethnic group, race, government, politician, etc
6. To promote a product or destroy a product/service of competitors
According to 30secondes.org, people
share fake news because of the following reasons:
1.
Because it’s very easy to fall into the trap:
Everyone who likes something or detests something is likely to share fake news, especially if it confirms their beliefs.
2.
It
is difficult to identify on the Web!
In the past, people obtained their information from a newspaper (or from radio and television). They knew these media and subscribed to them. Even if they bought a gossip rag, they knew it was a gossip rag, and not to be taken too seriously. But now, the boundaries are blurred.
3.
Because our mind plays tricks on us!
For example, we tend to trust our family, our friends, people we admire (stars, bloggers, etc.). If these people share something on social media, we will tend to believe them more easily.
4.
Fake news plays on our emotions
People who produce fake news use a foolproof trick, highly prized in advertising: they play on our emotions. They know that, motivated by a strong emotion (surprise, fear, disgust, hatred, contempt, etc.), people are more likely to react and share information.
Detecting Fake News in the 21st Century
Infographic:
How to spot fake news published by the International Federation of Library Associations and
Institutions
As
explained on the Wikipedia, The International Federation of Library Associations and
Institutions (IFLA)
published a summary in diagram form (pictured above) to assist
people in recognizing fake news. Its main points are:
1.
Consider
the source (to understand its mission and purpose)
2.
Read
beyond the headline (to understand the whole story)
3.
Check
the authors (to see if they are real and credible)
4.
Assess
the supporting sources (to ensure they support the claims)
5.
Check
the date of publication (to see if the story is relevant and up to date)
6.
Ask
if it is a joke (to determine if it is meant to be satire)
7.
Review
your own biases (to see if they are affecting your judgment)
8.
Ask
experts (to get confirmation from independent people with knowledge).
Dangers
and Negative Impacts of Fake News
Fake news makes series of impacts on us and the
society as a whole. Some of the implication of fake news includes:
1. It
impacts on individual’s money, health, emotions, etc
Example of this situation is when
you buy a nose mask for #10, 000 with the impression passed from fake news that
it is the only certified nose mask by WHO or you paid #2, 000 into a fake
account in order to apply for a job.
2. It
causes fear. Based on a fake news that Arewa youth threatens to kill all igbo
people for poisoning Buhari, would Igbo people feel safe in the north?
3. Results
to Ethnic or Religious conflicts. Would above news not cause problems between
Igbo and Hausa people?
4.
Bullying
and violence against innocent people. Fake news that intentionally goes against
specific people can result in the public outrage against them.
5. Democratic
impact: Imagine the implication of news that says Buhari endorses Tinubu to
succeed him!
Fighting
Against Fake News
30secondes.org advice on spotting fake news:
·
Beware of unsigned and undated
articles
Is the article signed? Who is the author? Is it a journalist, an expert, a specialist? Is the article dated? If the article is neither signed nor dated, these are good clues that give you reason to believe it is fake news.
·
Watch out for the URL
When you are asked to click a link, look at the URL. A website claimed to be for Zenith bank showing hustle.co on the address bar but displaying webpage that looks like Zenith Bank page is fake. Often URLs that end with “co” refer to fake news sites.
·
Do an additional search
After you read a WhatsApp message that says ‘Corona virus was released by China: says WHO’, find out online from reputable sites like WHO’s page itself, CNN, Punch, etc to confirm the story before you share such news.
·
You can take the following steps to
fight fake news:
1. Educate
yourself to know how to identify fake news
2. Always
let people know that the news they have sent to you is fake when you discover
so. You can go further to prove to them why it is fake.
3. Do
not ever share fake news.
4. Visit
the following sites to verify news or to know more about authenticity of
different types of news:
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/?utm_term=.ab9298b8ad02
There are series of internet plug-ins on Chrome App
that flag news or sites as fake or good.
Testing Your Knowledge on Fake News
Visit https://yali.state.gov/checks-verify/
to learn more on fake news.
At the end of this training, visit https://quiz.tryinteract.com/#/5e67a7155c30fc0014ddb381
to take the quiz and test your knowledge on fake news.
Closing Shots/Quote
“Fake
news & disinformation is designed to manipulate your emotions and trick you
into passing it on. Pause, take a breath. Be mindful about what you share.”#TakeCareBeforeYouShare
-UN
in Nigeria
References and Further Readings
Forrest Stroud (2020), fake news ‘https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/F/fake-news.html’
accessed on 24th June, 2020)
https://researchguides.ben.edu/c.php?g=608230&p=4219633
(accessed on 24th June, 2020)
https://30secondes.org/en/module/what-is-fake-news/
(accessed on 25th June, 2020)
https://yali.state.gov/checks/ (accessed on 27th June, 2020)
https://quiz.tryinteract.com/#/5e67a7155c30fc0014ddb381 (accessed on 27th June, 2020)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_news (accessed on 29th June, 2020)
Wahid OLANIPEKUN (PhD) - Editor
Musa SULEIMAN
- Asst.
Editor
Rabiu HANAFI
- Executive Director
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