The truth about fake news

The Korea Herald and The Nation offer tips on how not to be a victim of 'fake journalism'.
Advanced technology has made it easier to access information, but it has also made fabricating information as easy as clicking a button.
The Korea Herald and The Nation recently looked at the proliferation of fake or fabricated news as a rising concern in the industry and its impact on society. Asia has a very dynamic young population that is very active and engaged in social media networks, but there is also an alarming lack of critical thinking.
For one, The Korea Herald notes that recent cases show that South Korea has become a hotbed of fake news because it is one of the world's most wired countries
It noted that Koreans tend to search for information catering to their prejudices and beliefs, without even verifying their veracity.
On this, The Nation's Suthichai Yoon offers tips on how to detect fabricated news, starting with journalism's basic five W's and one H: who, what, where, when, why and how.
Some examples of fabricated news came from South Korea and Thailand: a video clip deliberately edited to show former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, said to be a strong contender in South Korea's presidential elections next year, visiting his father's grave and skipping an important part of the traditional rite for ancestors.
In Thailand, Thais got a taste of what "fake" news can do to you recently when Facebook got fooled by its own algorithm.
"When the social network activated its Safety Check feature, a false security alert was triggered. A year-old article about a bomb blast in Bangkok (the 2015 Erawan Shrine attack) sent a jolt of panic across the world before it was deactivated an hour later," Yoon wrote.
"The incident raised questions about how Thais consume news on the social media. Long before fake news became a big issue during the US presidential election campaign, many Thais were caught in their own drawn-out social media battle, posting news considered favourable to their political orientation – and disparaging stories that shed a negative light on their faction," he added.
Yoon emphasised that the general public has to be armed with sufficient guidelines on how to detect news that is deliberately distorted or cooked up to paint an incident in a certain way.
He cited guidelines by Nick Robins-Early, a world news reporter for the Huffington Post, in spotting a fake story including reading past the headline, checking the news outlet and sources and being wary of confirmation bias.
But Yoon's most important advice is: "Think before you share."
"That's because fake news sites rely on readers to share and engage with their articles in order for them to spread. In extreme cases, these fake articles can balloon out of control and have unintended consequences for those involved in the stories," he concluded.
Copyright: Asia News Network
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