Waging war on fake news

We live in an age of misinformation. Propaganda disguised as reporting; politicians and public figures calling anything they disagree with “fake news”; social media allowing falsehoods to spread across the world in seconds.

We — the media and the public — have done our best to wage war on misinformation, but we need everyone’s help to do it. Here are some things you can do:

Check the date. On social media in particular, old news articles will make the rounds, and people will treat them like the event just happened. While the article isn’t fake, it is still misleading to share out-of-date information.

Always check the source. Some sites offer more opinion than factual reporting or may take information out of context to support a specific position. You’ll find a graphic to the right of this editorial that ranks some popular news sources by political skew and factual reporting vs. intentional misinformation. (Though this version of the graphic is from 2018, it is similar to more current graphics that aren’t as easy to read.) Try to find the same information from other reputable sources. You can also usually refer to fact-checking websites like Snopes.com, FactCheck.org and
Politifact.com (for political claims).

Also beware of confirmation bias. Just because the information reaffirms what you already believe doesn’t mean it’s true. Sometimes, we believe things that aren’t true or aren’t completely true. It’s OK to find out we were wrong; it’s not OK to continue spreading false or misleading information.

Beware of screenshots. A screenshot is a picture of someone’s phone or computer screen. Screenshots only capture what information is visible on the screen at that time. That means information such as the date and the source can be missing. Also, screenshots tend to be of other people’s social media posts, such as a tweet or a Facebook status. Just because someone posted it and other people shared it doesn’t mean it’s true. If you feel the person has made a valid point, do your own research to make sure their facts are correct.

As a subpoint, in the case of social media posts, make sure the person posting is who they claim to be. Last weekend, a screenshot of a tweet appearing to be from a West Virginia news station claimed the first COVID-19 case had been confirmed days before the real confirmation. The tweet looked legitimate, but it was from a fake account. The fake Twitter used the same profile picture and a similar Twitter handle as the real news station. Many (but not all) official Twitter accounts will have a blue checkmark by their username. These means the account is “verified” and the person posting is who they claim to be. You’ll see this most frequently with celebrities and news organizations. The Dominion Post Twitter doesn’t have that blue check, but our handle is @DominionPostWV (spelled like that) and we joined in June 2011.

Beware of memes. Memes are usually pictures overlaid with words. The same picture is often reused with different variations of text. Most are just meant to entertain, but some — particularly political ones — contain false or misleading information. In the case of a meme that makes a claim, please verify the facts before sharing the image.

As your local news source, we work to bring you accurate information and combat falsehoods. But with the nearly unlimited potential for the internet to spread fiction in the guise of facts, we need your help to fight misinformation.