Fishing for Real News Amidst Fake News
You've probably heard about wanton debates before, gone through guides to all the "fake news versus real news" dos and don'ts. Yet your hands itch to press SHARE every time you come across an explosive "news" statement that promises some grand reveal in the life of a public figure.
Maybe it's time to go beyond the list of dos and don'ts, and explore the whys.
Blind faith can be cancerous
Newspaper and magazine subscriptions are largely products of their consumers' faith in the publication house, attained through years of regular news consumption. However, faith shouldn't be blind. When your curiosity dies, so does the stream of real news, as media publications begin to prioritise what their consumers want rather than what they need. The wheels of "fake news" will then churn out one clickbait after the other, keeping the audiences preoccupied with increasingly shortened news cycles, while the real world passes by, unnoticed.
There's also the perpetuation of fear-mongering, which has now become easier than ever due to the internet, where news, both fake and real, can travel at lightning speed. To avoid suffering from paranoid episodes fuelled by repeated exposure to fake news, keep calm and question everything.
The new "221B Baker Street" can, and should, be your IP address
Nothing beats doing your own research. You owe it to yourself to investigate the facts and figures you've consumed all day long. You can always break it down to two major processes:
Fact checking, where you verify the authentication of the information provided, by cross-referencing with multiple similar reports and the backstory involved. Source verification, where you track the point of origin for a piece of reported news, verifying whether or not the source is reliable when it comes to offering real news.
In recent times, discussion threads on social media are known to easily garner traction through screenshots of text messages, chat windows, and emails. Unfortunately, this also results in online movements being easily exploited through doctored images and plenty of clickbait. Once such a movement goes public, it attracts an uncontrollable amount of eyeballs, giving rise to social media phenomena such as cancel culture and trolling. Consumers of mass media often end up jumping to far-fetched conclusions before looking to verify the issues raised.
Solving the equation of personal growth for a more informed individual
I wouldn't call George Clooney the most progressive person alive, but I do live by one of his famous quotes, "You never really learn much from hearing yourself speak."
The significance of Clooney's quote is timeless. Personal growth is directly proportional to the amount of attention paid to everyone else. An excellent way of understanding the world is to view it from others' perspectives. That being said, while it is healthy to keep an open mind while taking in everyone else's opinions, some wariness doesn't hurt. Remember that opinions can either be shared by a large group of people, or just one individual. One must know to keep their radar tuned to acknowledging the source's ulterior motives, to help discern propaganda from reality.
Once upon a time, people had no choice but to rely on a game of Chinese whispers to convey news of an incident from one end of the world to another. Times have changed, and people have more options and less excuses. 'Tis the time to be a Good Samaritan, and make an effort to be well-informed of the real world and its affairs.
The author runs on 'RST: Rasha Standard Time' where minutes can extend weeks and months. Drop a note at [email protected] for inquiries on how RST can affect your daily life.
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