Journalist leads discussion about how to determine if online news is real or fake
Date: 01-11-2017 —The ability to share news with one click has made it easier to stay informed yet even easier to be duped.
Nearly 50 people showed up Monday night to learn how to discern if the news they read is real, fake or biased.
Jennifer Brown, former editor and opinion editor at the Kentucky New Era, led the hour-long open discussion hosted by the League of Women Voters and the Hopkinsville Community College.
She started out by differentiating between fake news and biased news. Fake news is simply conjuring up a bogus story. Biased news is obvious when personal beliefs influence reporting.
“There’s no news media that is pure and devoid of any philosophical leanings or bias — that’s just not possible,” she said. “If the bias or the political gain is the only reason for existence, then that’s the problem.”
Brown continued with a PowerPoint spelling out the seven elements that make a story newsworthy: prominence, impact, proximity, human interest, conflict, timeliness and bizarreness.
Brown went on to highlight a few fake news stories that went viral online last year.
“Pizzagate,” for instance, suggested Hillary Clinton was operating a child sex ring inside a District of Columbia pizza parlor. The fake story went so far that a North Carolina man traveled to D.C. and fired an assault rifle inside the restaurant, hoping to free the captive children. No one was hurt, but it could have been deadly.
Brown asked, “What’s at stake when cooked-up stories spread unchecked?” In the case of Pizzagate, public safety may be one thing.
“It erodes public trust, it seems, and diminishes the impact and value of real news reporting,” Brown said.
Her additional slides offered ways for readers to determine if an article is truthful, such as looking for the reporter’s byline and contact information.
“Credible news organizations should make their reporters accessible,” she said. “If a reporter won’t take a call from you or an email, you should be suspicious.”
Other tips included searching for more stories by the same reporter, checking the names and titles of people named in the article, searching for other stories on the same topic, and interacting with news media in your community when the opportunity arises.
She also shared a list of fact-checking sites, including PolitiFact.com (run by the Tampa Bay Times), FactCheck.org, OpenSecrets.org, Snopes.com and The Washington Post Fact Checker blog.
Before opening the floor, Brown once again highlighted that not all news is fake and that there is still a lot of honest reporting being done. However, she said in the coming years, people will try to discredit news they don’t like, even when it is true.
“I think the news media is about to go through a rough patch where many politicians are going to just try to discount them by saying, ‘That’s fake,’ when in fact they mean, ‘I don’t agree with you. I wish you had focused on something else.’”
The floor was opened for the audience to further discuss the epidemic of fake news.
Faye Hendricks, wife of Mayor Carter Hendricks, asked why aren’t credible news organizations or companies going after fake news sites that blatantly commit libel or slander.
“Why isn’t the pizza company or restaurant going after these people?” she said. “They’re doing it to make money, so hit them in their pocketbook. Will it make a difference or is it too hard to track down?”
Brown guessed it’s often too hard to track down or too expensive for independent people to go after. Most news organizations belong to a larger organization that will help with lawsuits, but the average person may not be able to afford it.
Candace Batchelder, Hopkinsville, said it seems some people choose to believe fake news when it fits their views.
“To me, the fake ones stand out,” she said. “It’s so unbelievable that I wonder why are people believing this stuff —I think there’s something underlying it, and I think it is misogyny.”
Some people in the discussion toyed with the idea that fake news is becoming more widespread because of corruption — where people are paid to create fake news as part of a strategy — and because of money and the advertising dollars associated with clicks on websites.
Jan Culwell, Cadiz, said people are more on guard to fake news today, but it’s harder to dispel dubious news once it’s widely accepted.
“I’m thinking of the videotape that someone altered of Planned Parenthood,” she said, “even though it’s been proven false, and the person that altered the tape has been indicted and convicted.”
Following a question from the audience, Brown said she believes fake news does play a role in political polarization. To combat this issue, she offered the idea of news literacy classes that would teach students how to consume news and information in a way that they become more informed and engaged citizens.
However, Brown worried that “we’ve gone so far over the ledge of polarization that we couldn’t agree on a news literacy project.”
Toward the end of the discussion, Hendricks made a point that readers must make an effort to stop spreading fake news.
“I think we have a responsibility not to share news that we’re not sure is 100 percent true,” she said.
To end, Brown thanked everyone for coming and mingled with the audience, many of whom were glad the League initiated the discussion.
“Jennifer is very knowledgeable with the news,” said Hopkinsville native Tom Marshall. “I think doing this (event) is good. We don’t have enough level-heads trying to bring people together.”
By Zirconia Alleyne
Kentucky New Era
