How to Spot a Fake News

Fake News has become a matter of concern in today's society. - Anurag Thakur

Information has been widely accessible from the dawn of the internet. Still, despite the information being available anywhere, it is, in fact, dim for most people to determine whether something is real or fake. We often encounter two types of fake news on the internet or even in mainstream media, namely: misinformation and disinformation. These two terms are often interchangeable, but they should be treated differently since they vastly differ. Misinformation is about spreading fallacies and fake information regardless of whether there is an intent to mislead. At the same time, disinformation works solely to mislead and distort information or, in short, it is to spread propaganda. In today's time, people should always think critically to prevent a false conception of information.

To spot fake news, we must always carry the lens of being speculative and curious. Analyzing the sources, checking the author's credibility, examining the supporting information, biases, and dates, and most importantly, reading beyond the lines.

In this blog, we will wear our investigative hats and give rise to determining real and fake and whether the chosen news article is from a common Filipino subspecies that gossips all sorts of information that lingers on its territory called the "Marites" or from a real news agency with credible authors and experts that aims to provide the truth that today, we shall witness and see.

Image 1.1. Facebook post of Philippine Daily Sun

About the Author

With over 25K likes, the Facebook Page Philippine Daily Sun, despite being blatantly exposing itself as a satire page. Many netizens still fall from their absurd, and not gonna lie, a hilarious approach to making headlines that always catches the attention of the netizens. Although, with no information about the author and no other means of verifying any source of the satire page, this post clearly is not credible.

Examining the Source

Philippine Daily Sun, with no known records of information and only hosts Facebook and Twitter platforms, the page falls under the category of an unreliable/satirical source.

Checking the Date, Biases, Credentials, and Supporting Sources

The post was posted on May 1, 2022, that aims to relate to Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr's platform about creating more jobs if elected as the President of the country and the typical way of people just goofing around with their job place description on Facebook, such as "Krusty Krab" and "Edi sa puso mo" that is unavoidable to come across. The post is relevant to today's time but in a comical fashion. The post stated no other sources, but a link was provided however it just takes to Rick Astley's - Never Gonna Give You Up, which is a common tradition in the digital space.

Image 1.2. Facebook post of Philippine Daily Sun

Conclusion

In a nutshell, the post was clearly an exhibition of what fake news looks like. It is a satirical approach, but it all marks what today's fake news looks like. There are instances below the posts where people expressed their gratitude for BBM's decision to create more jobs for the made-up companies at the post despite being straightforward satirical content. It is sad to see that many still can not distinguish what fake news looks like. However, I still am an optimist for media and technology literacy for this country to flourish. But until that time, spreading awareness about what is real and fake should never cease. As part of a generation who grew up with the internet, I stand to make a change in the current forecast of information sharing.

Cheers,

Adam