How Can Journalists More Easily Spot Misinformation Online?
Misinformation disseminated on social media came into sharp focus after the events of January 6, 2021. After rioters who supported the conspiracy theory that Donald Trump won the 2020 election breached the United States Capitol, social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter made a show of banning Trump and marking misinformation on posts–but was it enough?
Misinformation continues to circle throughout the media. Up to 15% of adult Americans have not received a COVID-19 vaccine due to widespread false info about the vaccine’s efficacy and effects on fertility. BA.2, an even more contagious subvariant of the Omicron variant, is circulating and causing new waves of infections in Europe and Asia.
As we all ride through a seemingly endless pandemic and wade through waves of misinformation targeting the pillars of American democracy, how can we better spot misinformation? Better yet, how can journalists, who need to be able to disseminate facts from fiction at every step of their process, filter out the bad stuff at the very beginning? There are multiple ways.
Install a browser plug-in. This fake news debunker by InVid and WeVerify, for example, can execute reverse image searches so that images being used out of context are more easily spotted. This plug-in was created by journalists, for journalists, following the 2016 United States presidential elections and the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Investigate your sources. Google, despite seeming like the easy way out, is actually one of the most useful springboards. Search the author of the piece and the platform to confirm the source’s legitimacy. Learn how to craft keywords in order to perform specific checks on an author. For example: “Author Name” site:foreignpress.org will turn up any and all search results on that website for that author name. “Author Name” -foreignpress.org: the minus sign will omit all results from foreignpress.org and turn up the author’s other work.
Monitor your personal engagement. Social media subsists on algorithms made to turn up posts the site thinks you want to see. The algorithm affects every single individual who uses these platforms, whether they be left or right-wing, and plenty of bot accounts are set up to insert false information into those circles. For example, the more often one hits “like” or “retweet” on a Bernie Sanders meme, the more often one will be shown Bernie Sanders memes. The line between memes as clickbait and factual reporting has become extremely blurred, so being extra aware of what your algorithm is turning up will make knowing when to execute Tool #2 easier.
Analyze the language of the source. Is the article using sensationalist language, or is it reporting facts and citing sources? For example, consider the title of this piece: “Former KKK leader whines after felony conviction derails his campaign for office in Georgia” vs. “Disqualified: CBS46 investigation exposed felon trying to run for office.” The language in the former denotes a significant bias against the party who is the subject of the piece, while the latter states nothing more than a truncated version of the entire story.
Misinformation vs. Disinformation: What is the difference? Misinformation is information that is untrue. Disinformation is information that has been distorted in order to advance a specific agenda. For example, the 2016 presidential election saw two false articles about Pope Francis endorsing opposite party candidates Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. The Pope endorsed no candidate for president, but each article received a large amount of engagement from readers.
Cross-reference sources. Who else is reporting the story? How are other outlets reporting the story? Identifying and establishing reputable sources of information is vital for this step. For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is a reputable source on current guidelines surrounding the outbreak of COVID-19. Despite being a government official, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is not a reputable source on current guidelines surrounding the outbreak of COVID-19.
Check the dates. News stories often re-enter social media circuits because someone resurrects them and presents the event as recent, or because the subject matter is similar to current events. Checking the date of publication, as well as the dates of any edits, is important, but even more important is following the story to its primary sources and making sure the news is recent.
Investigate the Website. Who owns the website posting this information? Would whomever is in control of this information significantly change the way it is being reported? You can find out who owns specific sources by cross-referencing them at https://whois.domaintools.com/ or https://whois.icann.org/. Whenever someone registers a website address, they are required to enter their contact information. WHOIS searches turn up that information. Enter in the domain (the first part of the website URL) to see if your source holds a clear bias.
Journalists’ judgment. Is the piece too good to be true? Is it super reactionary, or too weird? In the 2020s, and in the relative chaos of the past two years, it can be hard to trust one’s judgment on these matters, but judgment is the final piece of the puzzle for a journalist. Plus, judgment is what brings journalists into their career paths. That judgment is invaluable.
Journalists are in a tougher place now more than ever with misinformation running free across the internet, and with a public who are more mistrustful of the media than any population has been in recent years, egged on by politicians whose best interest lies in their own version of the truth. With these mitigation tools, any journalist can feel more confident about the sources they regularly engage with.
