TUTORIAL 3: Find 2 fake news that has been widely shared online. Discuss where the stories were published and their impacts on the news organizations and the members of the public. As a journalist, what can you do to mitigate the spread of this fake news? List the mitigation measures and explain them.
Question 1: Find 2 fake news that has been widely shared online.
Fake news 1:
https://www.therakyatpost.com/news/malaysia/2021/11/11/dont-worry-our-bananas-dont-have-helicopter-worms-says-agriculture-department/
This is the video on the alleged discovery of Helicobacter "worms" in bananas containing unauthentic and dubious information. On November 11, 2021, Agriculture DG Datuk Zahimi Hassan said our domestic and foreign products are safe to eat. Actually in the news report and according to the Department of Agriculture, it verifies that ‘Helicopter’ or ‘Helicobacter’ worms in Somalian bananas are not real and the claims made by a viral video is actually false and contain dubious information.
Fake news 2:
https://www.nst.com.my/news/crime-courts/2021/08/714069/man-charged-spreading-fake-news-covid-19-vaccination
A former production manager of a Singapore-based engineering company was charged at the Sessions Court today with spreading fake news regarding the death of a policeman, allegedly due to a Covid-19 vaccine in April. The accused, Muhammad Zaki Omar, 36, he was accused of using his own Facebook account with the intention of causing concern to the public at 11.39pm on April 3. The accused had posted the fake news which read "Finally in Gerik today, a death was confirmed involving a policeman. Complications of second dose vaccine injection.
Question 2: Discuss where the stories were published and their impacts on the news organizations and the members of the public.
For the first fake news, it was published through the social media platform and for the second fake news was published also through the social media platform, Facebook account. In this era full of information and information is released very quickly, many people will choose to follow social information through social media platforms. People now like to absorb information in the fastest and convenient way, and like to read fragmented information posted on social media. With the reading habit characterized by fragmented reception of information, the media's preemption of the information market has become increasingly fierce. When social media releases fake news and news organizations release real information together, readers will feel confused about which news release is the real consultation. This will result in a lack of credibility in the information released by news organizations. Also, it will directly affect news organisation’s value that they provide to the public. In addition, I think that for reporters who are not experienced, these fake news will mislead them and then accidentally make mistakes.
Fake news provides the audience with false facts. The emotions of the audience based on biased information sometimes hinder the healthy operation of society. For example, for the first fake news, the video about the discovery of Helicobacter "worms" in bananas. This is fake information. This type of fake news, if we don’t officially confirm it, our people will be attracted by this fake news and dare not continue to eat bananas. For the second fake news, the man spreading fake news regarding the death of a policeman due to the Covid-19 vaccination. This behavior will cause our public to panic about the vaccination, and it will also cause the public to only communicate what they think is right and post it on their social media, and then make friends around you believe in fake news. Such behavior will make it impossible for our people to work together to fight the epidemic.
Question 3: As a journalist, what can you do to mitigate the spread of this fake news? List the mitigation measures and explain them.
Firstly, as journalists, we should still maintain our own independent thinking, not rely too much on the source, and must have professionalism to verify the information provided by the source. When we receive information from either party, we must verify that the information is correct. For example, we can go to the government official media to check the facts. Some government sectors and institutions including the Ministry of Health have opened the officials accounts on the several types of social media which have been certified as blue ticks by Facebook, so that the viewers can get the information from the authorities.
Secondly, as journalists, we should have a responsibility to teach our public how to verify the fake news. The journalists should Provide reasonable guidance to citizens’ information release and strengthen the verification of news information. I think journalists can write the writing posts or shoot a tutorial video on a certain news organization page, to write out the information about how to verify the fake news and what the public can do after they receive the fake news. This action can help us to decrease the panic in certain issues.
Thirdly, according to the second fake news, as journalists, we can go to interview the Agriculture department to verify the facts and also we can follow the department to experiment whether the banana got any worms. Besides, to make a clarification on this incident, the journalist can invite food experts to clarify this incident and give readers a peace of mind. Same as the first fake news, we also can interview that police to clarify the fakes.
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