Fake news is across all platforms and there have been multiple measures by Facebook and others to tackle fake news. In simple words, this buzz word means that any information which cannot be verified or has no sources or is possibly untrue. Fake news propogates through different channels be it through social media sharing or with false headlines or deliberately spreading misinformation or unfortunately some times even as a satire.
While everyone can follow the simple steps of verifying where it is coming from, checking for facts, etc., I have an idea for anyone to pick up and see if they can implement to tackle fake news. The idea is an inspiration from various podcasts happening online on YouTube from AIB and EIC. This idea struck me when I was talking with participants at TechCamp Bengaluru 2017 this month.
How about a weekly podcast series either on YouTube or even on SoundCloud with the following items on every podcast:
- Pick the top 5 fake news items from the last week
- Bring out the actual facts about those fake news and debunk them
- Add some humor to make it serious yet thought provoking
I am neither a podcast guy not a great blogger. Looking forward to see if someone can implement this as I see a great potential for this to become mainstream in creating awareness about the existence of fake news itself. Today, it is hard for people to even realize if a news is fake or not. Classic examples of these which I am sure all of us have seen are “UN has declared our national anthem as the best national anthem” or whatever, “This is the picture of India during the Diwali night”, etc., which are lame but people tend to think are real. These are some silly examples but this gets really serious when politicians are involved and are becoming presidents and prime ministers of nations in this world.
#peas