These days a lot of media literacy programs out there trying to educate citizens and consumers on how to deal with the fake news phenomenon while they navigate the complicated and convoluted media landscape. It\u2019s complicated for us, people who grew up with the likes of Google, Yahoo Messenger, blogs, Facebook and social media of all sorts. I can only imagine how difficult it may be for people who are used to traditional journalism, people who say things like: It was on TV!, I read it in the newspaper! <\/em>They are used to journalism and journalists playing the role of gate-keeping, for them whatever ends up in media (be it TV, the paper, the magazine) was validated as being truthful. And they transition that trust to other media sources \u2014 basically, any\/all internet related sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve been online since I was 14 (17 years ago\u2026wow! am I old or what?!) and doing social listening for 8 years now. Social listening actually requires you read A LOT on countless online media. For the first 2.5 years, I read 100 articles or mentions\/day on average and compiled summary reports in the morning and the afternoon. It\u2019s safe to say I had my fair share of on the work training on fake news and spammy sources. I learned a lot and I decided I could share with you some of the things I learned. I hope it helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you analyze a piece of news\/reporting look at who wrote or produced it and ask yourself the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Writing and producing content has its costs and someone needs to foot the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Media moguls monopolize the public agenda, they invest resources in one topic that they want to influence, they want the public opinion to swerve a certain way. Look at how the topic was covered previously and if you see a pattern (multiple articles published on the same topic, the same view and tone&voice).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Look at what the author has published and check if they have a preferred topic or they have previously expressed an opinion on that topic. Look at the material and try to scan for tone & voice: do those headlines seem like they come from an activist rather than a journalist? If yes, take everything they say with a grain of salt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another thing on the checklist \u2014 if we\u2019re talking about a news outlet, check to see whether the name is the real deal or it\u2019s just a pen name. Some news outlets will require some of their writers to sign articles under the same pen name and it\u2019s sometimes very obvious. Why would you do that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes when you want to make a piece of news viral your best bet is to drive shares on social media. Look at who shares the content: if each and every single time a very aggressive Jane Doe journalist writes a piece on Trump\/vaccination\/immigration\/big pharma conspiracy\/any of the hot topics on the world wide web and it ALWAYS gets shared by the same activists\/filter bubbles, question it, ask yourself if the piece was not published with specific goals in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the piece of writing is online, you as a reader can do a background check and assess the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The public agenda is volatile and subject to the fast-changing news cycle. This week we\u2019ll read about Brexit, EU leadership, Iraq war, Superbowl AND a proposal for new policy around international relations and national defense. And users\/readers tend to interpret the topics in silos like they are not connected to each other at all. Most of the time they are. For example, a policymaker or candidate might push for new legislation or added budgets for defense BECAUSE of the other topics on the public agenda, because the moment is ripe for him\/her to win some political capital or votes by claiming we need to defend the nation from 3rd world countries\/immigration\/external policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That happens because our attention span is shorter than ever, we don\u2019t take the time, nor do we have the patience to put news\/articles\/opinion pieces into context. No wonder, we\u2019re flooded with info from all over!<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, in a data-driven world digital literacy is a much-needed skill, individuals are valued more and more on how they find the correct information and how they process it. We need to train ourselves to have the patience to read more than one news article, to investigate the background story and connect all the missing pieces of the puzzle. To act as a reporter, if need be, and validate the information from different sources, play devil\u2019s advocate, question the motivation for writing that particular article in a specific time & place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a lot of work. It\u2019s not easy. But it\u2019s useful for us as individuals and citizens. It can help fend off fake news and malicious intent. It will take up a lot of our time so we need to carefully think about what media we consume, what matters to us and what can\/will influence our lives.<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We all heard of it. The American president and hordes of other European politicians dismiss a lot (if not all) negative press about them as \u2018fake news\u2019 spread by their competitors. It\u2019s come to a point where they even denounce their own statements (caught on camera) as fake news. With companies, the challenge is a […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[27],"class_list":["post-313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-digital-marketing"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/miro.medium.com\/max\/6236\/1*74P7BuIoRkxM-cDqlEVHNA.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWho: Sources, Authors, Sharers<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
What you read: sources, links, backlinks<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
When, where and why: take a history lesson once in a while. Or stop to think about the bigger picture.<\/h1>\n\n\n\n