Remember when news used to be simple? Be it on TV or on print, presented in a neutral tone, news had its own weight in gold because it was something a journalist reported. Those were the days when these deliverers of news were respected and feared by the mightiest in society.
With the advent of the 24 hours news channels, ‘news’ started to compete with general entertainment and movie channels. No surprise that today, news has degenerated into a source of entertainment and callous fictionalisation. News has shifted from being a means of public service first to a core revenue stream. There is zero provision for ‘public service’ in the foundational tenets of a business. Which is okay because this is a fact well known to the public. We the people and profit hungry businesses have an agreement on this. But, when disciplines like news and teaching, that originally played the role of community service turn into businesses, the public is caught unawares. We are cheated and our emotions exploited without our knowledge. But now, we are potential buyers, not merely an audience and so no one cares. This shift took place almost 2 decades ago and more in most of the developed world, but humanity is still struggling to question any bit of information presented to them as ‘news’. Even a neatly formatted whatsapp message is often accepted as truth.
Misinformation, brainwashing and misunderstandings generated for mere greed for profit have led to on-ground rioting, mass support for death and destruction. Things have gotten so out of hand that slowly but surely the reliability associated with news sources is fading. Upcoming generations are not ready to trust anything without verifying. But the battle between fact checkers and profiteering news mongers is getting fiercer by the day. It has become easier to doctor videos and photographs than it is to slice bread. Biases are easy to feed into. Misleading news spreads easier than melted butter on those slices of bread. If it’s any solace, technology is available for all of us to harness equally.
There is a growing network of not for profit fact checkers who are dedicating themselves to help people navigate harmful misinformation. The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a non-profit journalism school and research organisation in St. Petersburg, Florida. The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at Poynter was launched in 2015 to bring together the growing community of fact-checkers around the world. They work towards the global fight against misinformation and support fact-checkers through networking, capacity building and collaboration. IFCN’s network reaches over 170 fact-checking organisations around the globe through advocacy, training and events. Their team monitors trends in the fact-checking field to offer resources to fact-checkers, contribute to public discourse and provide support for new projects and initiatives that advance accountability in
Since early 2013, FactChecker has been scrutinising and researching for veracity and context or statements made by individuals in public life. As well as picking up on issues that warrant an examination of data that is accessible to the public. On the same mission is BOOM, an independent digital journalism initiative in India. They explain issues and make the internet safer. Boom is certified by IFCN. The phenomenon is not just restricted to the urban intellectual.
Taking the initiative to small cities and villages is FactShala formed with the support of Google News Initiative. Factshala helps people across India to critically evaluate news sources and sift facts from misinformation. They work with publishers and journalists to fight misinformation and share resources.
Several other organisations are geared up to stand with the growing number of people who seek to verify anything that is presented to them as news and even more so, as ‘breaking news’. The resulting ‘fact check’ for businesses and brand builders is this: people are just not going to remain as gullible as we had them before. Slowly but surely, the public is being able to discern advertising from news and both from outright drivel.
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