Key Points:
Defining "Fast News"
The Dangers of spreading false information and who it affects
How it affects the legitimacy of Journalists and News Networks
Our constant connection to the world through mobile devices and social media have quickly changed the way we gather news. While there have been numerous benefits to this, there have also been dangerous side effects. Fast, unverified news has quickly taken over social media and become normal to users.
Referred to as "fast news", this new reporting form can be defined as news that is shared immediately after or during an incident where Information is often unknown. The viewpoint given is from the sole perspective of whoever is sharing it, and the content is often sensationalized and novel.
While searching through #Ukraine on Twitter from early dates of the invasion, I quickly found numerous examples of fast/ fake news being reported on the app.
(See Below) Twitter user Daniel Funke shared a news story he had found on Facebook that was proven to be false when fact checked by USA Today. The post in question, which received over a thousand views and numerous shares, showed footage from a 2015 airshow celebrating Russia's National Flag Day while claiming it was footage of a Russian fighter jet that had been shot down by the Ukrainian military during the invasion.
Along with this post, I also found a twitter user alleging that a different photo showing a jet being shot down was from Mariupol when in actuality it was a Libyan fighter jet shot down over Benghazi in 2011; and a smaller network showed footage of russian paratroopers and claimed the video was from the invasion of ukraine. This same news channel aired a video from 2015 of a port explosion in china claiming it was footage of airstrikes from the invasion.
While putting out false news may seem like a harmless way to grow your social media presence, it can lead to dangerous consequences for those living in affected areas:
Though first responders generally don’t get their information from social media, they can get bombarded with calls by people who have seen something online that they believe to be true.
If a video is shared alleging to show a certain area under attack, when in reality the video is old or incorrect, it can cause unnecessary grief panic for the loved ones of people in that area.
If a person is living in an area that is hit by disaster and needs to leave immediately, they may check social media to see what areas are safe. While many people can post helpful things, their voices often get drowned out by sensationalized stories and media.
Not only does fast news harm innocent civilians, in the long run this practice can deeply hurt the legitimacy of credible news sources.
As social media integrates itself into the business of news outlets, many multimedia journalists have become valued by the amount of clicks they can get. Along with this, there is a constant pressure to be the first to drop a story. While we adapt to utilizing social media as a tool for journalism, we must remember a couple things:
If a story needs to go out fast, there is less allotted time for fact checking and verifying details. These rushed stories are sloppier, often not full of substantial information (since there isn’t any yet), and affect the public's view of an outlets credibility in the long run.
The phrase “nobody reads a retraction” is a very true statement, once a story is put out and shared, it can reach a large audience. Many of that audience aren’t loyal readers to the publication, they just happened to see it after it was shared and will not know that the misinformation they view as fact is proven to be incorrect.
To summarize, numerous studies have shown that fast, sensationalized news spreads quickly and often reachers a larger audience than less sensationalized, slower news.
That isn’t to say that we should go back to waiting around for the morning paper to tell us everything we’ve missed in the past 24 hours. It just means that social media users have to make the choice to not believe everything they see without context and to value stories that might take a little longer to be produced and are given time to be fact checked.
As with everything in life, news reporting has evolved and it will continue to evolve. Though this is not a bad thing, news outlets have to remind themselves that their job is to keep the public accurately informed, not to get their take out first.
People should value well researched stories over the sensational, news outlets should focus on being accurate; not fast.
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