Who should be responsible for fake news?

Fake news has become a buzz word in the last four years. Often, as a student journalist, when I discuss my major I get this response: "Make sure you aren't posting fake news."

Does anyone really know what fake news is anyways? I would define it as information that may come from an unreliable source or that is wholly or partially false. The spread of misinformation can be incredibly dangerous and has been damaging the reputation of journalists for years.

The spread of misinformation is just a click away

According to the article "How misinformation spreads on social media – and what to do about it," a Tweet with misinformation can spread at an exponentially higher rate than a Tweet with the correct information.

Image from "How misinformation spreads on social media - and what do about it"

Social media makes it incredibly easy to share information without much basis for whether or not that information is truthful.

The sites are not necessarily at fault but should be responsible for holding the sources of misinformation accountable.

Facebook uses third-party fact-checkers to lessen the spread of misinformation but critics have argued that these fact-checkers are biased and simply cannot cover the mass of information released on the site.

Instead, Facebook and other social media sites should not be investing in fact-checkers to search through a vast collection of information. Instead, social media sites should take the responsibility of teaching users the danger of misinformation. Simple tutorials and free webinars on media literacy would be extremely helpful for Facebook to make available to its users.

After all, it may be better to equip social media users with the knowledge they need rather than trying to weed out the possibility that they would be affected by social media.

What should a journalist do?

As journalists, we need to reestablish trust with our audience. The spread of fake news and the current political climate has made it difficult for journalists to connect with their readers or viewers.

Journalists can teach media literacy to their communities. Live events have been popping up as news outlets like Gannett attempt to bridge the gap between the public and journalists. A media literacy class taught by journalists could be a live event aimed at helping their community weed out misinformation.

Journalists must also be transparent. If a journalist makes a mistake, a correction must be issued in the same way that the original information was issued. Journalists also need to be fact-checking at every step of the process to prevent the need for corrections at all.

Fake news and the spread of misinformation is too big to be combatted by journalists or social media sites alone. But, for those who are close to the issue and deeply affected by it, we do have a vested interest in equipping the people with media literacy and the tools to be an educated reader.