The Epidemic across the globe is huge, but majority of the countries have either largely sensible and professional media or they at least have a distinction between Tabloids and proper news papers. Sadly Journalism in Pakistan is LAZY to say the least or handouts driven. Any Tom Harry can start a TV show and can count themselves as journalist. In our Country TV channels and Media houses are extremely irresponsible and Lazy. They have resorted to picking up news from Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp Groups and actually do headlines and tickers based on that. It has become worst in Pakistan as the Audience is easy to be taken for a ride. The subject itself is HUGE, as not only the magnitude is big but also the ways of spreading fake news have multiple dynamics as well. There is Completely Fake news and then there is Some truth mixed with blatant lies and speculations. The extreme polarisation in our country has Made it so easy for the fake news merchants to spread lies, as they will get customers no matter how absurd the news is, as most of us , only see what we WANT to see. I was reading something on BBC world last night, The news was that someone KILLED someone based on a viral FAKE Whatsapp Video. The consequences are HUGE in our society particularly. So behaving responsibly is even more important for us, your Innocent Forward or share, can cause even cause a totally undesired catastrophe which you may not even know. SPECIFICALLY on sensitive matters and situations, be extra careful before spreading or sharing anything.
The SADDEST part is, that in most countries, Journalists discover a story, they Do their investigation, they check the news with relevant person or Entity and then break it, but in our country even those who are considered "SENIOR SAHAFI" are found throwing it on Twitter , usually with a "IS THAT TRUE?" .. so basically they want YOU to do their Job for Them, and on many occasions, it is Deliberate, so a false news starts making rounds. They would simply back off whilst a million fools will do their job for them and five million will argue and debate while they sit back and relax, JOB DONE!!!
I will try and put some Basic discipline that we can apply on ourselves to at least pick up on obvious fake news.
There is no right or wrong way, but here are some tips:
1) If looking at a News piece, Check the Source, and when I say the Source, I don't mean the News Channel/Newspaper, but what is the Source that the News paper/channel is Quoting. overwhelming majority of news quoted with an Anonymous source, which is sugar quoted as "SOURCES SAY", "According to the SOURCES" , According to "VERY RELIABLE SOURCES" and for URDU news "ZARAYE KAY MUTABIQ" are Either completely false or made up of pinch of truth mixed with speculation. AVOID spreading ZARAAYE News. Sadly, Journalistic privilege of reserving the source, has been abused to levels never seen before in Pakistan that it is now best to avoid believing in any news quoted with "ZARAYE" as source. you will save yourself an embarrassment on 90% of occasions. And Besides the WORST that can happen on that 10%, will be that you may not be the FIRST person to break it, BIG DEAL?. Trust the "ZARAYE NEWS" on your own risk and be prepared to be embarrassed, and yeah, Dont complain if you do :) .
2) Trust NO MEDIA house straight away. and when i say this, I mean NO media house. when you read a news headline, check for Source. if it is related to someone, check THEIR page, twitter, facebook page (if any). if it is a statement, try to look for the ACTUAL clip.
3) DONT pay head to the Headline. The Truth is sometimes hidden somewhere in the details. READ the News instead of commenting on headline. Though in the last four five years, I have realised that even Traversing the News, is an art and only come from Experience ONLY if you remember your mistakes and learn from past experience.
4) VERIFY an image, Date time Context and even if it is, what it says it is. Trust me, caption works wonders, I can viral a photo of an African boy with the caption of "Daughter of Donald Trump and Melania" and people will believe it. Easiest way to verify an image is by doing a REVERSE IMAGE SEARCH on Google. Majority of fake news related to images can be busted within minutes through reverse image search.
5) If a video clip of a news channel is Viral, check if the date is clear, if it is , then of course check the date. if it is blurred, there is a overwhelming chance that the video is Old and unrelated. Try to Search the News with intelligent keywords related to the news story (chances are , the clip is viraled so first few results, you will get from Retweet hunters and sham blog sites), Traverse through several pages.
6) Many Fake news, actually SHOUT themselves "I am FAKE". Certain things, just CANNOT happen in Pakistan, For example, No matter what, NO government can Legalise Alcohol, even if from top to bottom their reps are alcoholics of the worst order, Gay marriages legalisation, No government can blatantly announce accepting ISRAEL as a state, it just simply cant happen. If you support any of these or any other similar NON STARTERS, then be prepared to be disappointed and if you are against this, then HOLD your horses before spreading any such news.
7) STOP believing in your own Lies!!! Harsh as it may seem, but YOU know there are certain things that you just know are made up, start believing in them knowingly and you are a PERFECT IDIOT for the propaganda machine. Dont provide them with another useful idiot to advance their propaganda.
8) KNOW the Usual Suspects. The Farhan Virks and his Army of fake celebrity accounts, The Omar Qureshis, The Omer Cheemas, The Gul Bukharis, The Asad Kharals, VOA (urdu) , Sarah Jawad ( the KNOWN fake ID of Ahmed Noorani and Murtaza Ali shah that was Exposed so many times and was even mocked by journalists openly that they dumped it and now they have created another one, Sidra Memon)... We all know these gangs anyways, but be mindful.
9) I have personally STOPPED clicking on ANY link that Shouts "CLICK BAIT" to me, no matter how interesting or appealing the news is for me. I just simply ignore them.
10) There is a FAKE NEWS BUSTER Twitter handle of Information department ( https://twitter.com/FakeNews_Buster | @FakeNews_Buster) USE it to verify. You may find Many if not all fake news rebuttals there. Although already there are so many fake accounts of this account floating around, No surprise. @INsafPK is another Dedicated account to rebut fake news related to the current ruling party i.e. PTI. Don't expect EVERYTHING but you will find most of the pressing propaganda issues busted there.
11) If you see a Screenshot or Graphic of a News Channel headline, breaking news, Check straight away at the relevant news channel/newspaper's website, Twitter handle or Facebook page. If you don't find it there, then it is obviously false, if you do, then see point number 1.
12) Anyone can fall for fake news or a tempting graphic full of lies, even Journalists but stop believing the Journalist, who posts a Fake news and instead of APOLOGISING and clarifying that it was fake, deletes it quietly after being caught.
13) for court cases, I have found it best to follow a few court reporters who give word to word account of what was said in the court room. I have stopped following ANY channels reporting for the last 2 years on Court cases. if you do, then try to make a distinction between facts and opinions and traverse at least two to three different channels. When I say Different Channels, I mean channels with different known inclinations. To me, it is BEST to just get a report on court proceeding, word to word if you can. A few court reporters like Siddique Jan and inam ullah khattak I have tried and tested them to be thorough in their court reporting.
14) KNOW the source of your news, We all know the tilt of media houses in Pakistan , so do your own research on a news keeping in mind the obvious tilt and past of the source.
15) FIGHT the urge of being the First Person who broke the news to the family and friends. They will know it from abundantly available sources, everyone has a mobile, TV and access to social media. Post it ONLY after confirmation. not being the first person to break the news is not important But your CREDIBILITY is Priceless!!!
The SADDEST part is, that in most countries, Journalists discover a story, they Do their investigation, they check the news with relevant person or Entity and then break it, but in our country even those who are considered "SENIOR SAHAFI" are found throwing it on Twitter , usually with a "IS THAT TRUE?" .. so basically they want YOU to do their Job for Them, and on many occasions, it is Deliberate, so a false news starts making rounds. They would simply back off whilst a million fools will do their job for them and five million will argue and debate while they sit back and relax, JOB DONE!!!
I will try and put some Basic discipline that we can apply on ourselves to at least pick up on obvious fake news.
There is no right or wrong way, but here are some tips:
1) If looking at a News piece, Check the Source, and when I say the Source, I don't mean the News Channel/Newspaper, but what is the Source that the News paper/channel is Quoting. overwhelming majority of news quoted with an Anonymous source, which is sugar quoted as "SOURCES SAY", "According to the SOURCES" , According to "VERY RELIABLE SOURCES" and for URDU news "ZARAYE KAY MUTABIQ" are Either completely false or made up of pinch of truth mixed with speculation. AVOID spreading ZARAAYE News. Sadly, Journalistic privilege of reserving the source, has been abused to levels never seen before in Pakistan that it is now best to avoid believing in any news quoted with "ZARAYE" as source. you will save yourself an embarrassment on 90% of occasions. And Besides the WORST that can happen on that 10%, will be that you may not be the FIRST person to break it, BIG DEAL?. Trust the "ZARAYE NEWS" on your own risk and be prepared to be embarrassed, and yeah, Dont complain if you do :) .
2) Trust NO MEDIA house straight away. and when i say this, I mean NO media house. when you read a news headline, check for Source. if it is related to someone, check THEIR page, twitter, facebook page (if any). if it is a statement, try to look for the ACTUAL clip.
3) DONT pay head to the Headline. The Truth is sometimes hidden somewhere in the details. READ the News instead of commenting on headline. Though in the last four five years, I have realised that even Traversing the News, is an art and only come from Experience ONLY if you remember your mistakes and learn from past experience.
4) VERIFY an image, Date time Context and even if it is, what it says it is. Trust me, caption works wonders, I can viral a photo of an African boy with the caption of "Daughter of Donald Trump and Melania" and people will believe it. Easiest way to verify an image is by doing a REVERSE IMAGE SEARCH on Google. Majority of fake news related to images can be busted within minutes through reverse image search.
5) If a video clip of a news channel is Viral, check if the date is clear, if it is , then of course check the date. if it is blurred, there is a overwhelming chance that the video is Old and unrelated. Try to Search the News with intelligent keywords related to the news story (chances are , the clip is viraled so first few results, you will get from Retweet hunters and sham blog sites), Traverse through several pages.
6) Many Fake news, actually SHOUT themselves "I am FAKE". Certain things, just CANNOT happen in Pakistan, For example, No matter what, NO government can Legalise Alcohol, even if from top to bottom their reps are alcoholics of the worst order, Gay marriages legalisation, No government can blatantly announce accepting ISRAEL as a state, it just simply cant happen. If you support any of these or any other similar NON STARTERS, then be prepared to be disappointed and if you are against this, then HOLD your horses before spreading any such news.
7) STOP believing in your own Lies!!! Harsh as it may seem, but YOU know there are certain things that you just know are made up, start believing in them knowingly and you are a PERFECT IDIOT for the propaganda machine. Dont provide them with another useful idiot to advance their propaganda.
8) KNOW the Usual Suspects. The Farhan Virks and his Army of fake celebrity accounts, The Omar Qureshis, The Omer Cheemas, The Gul Bukharis, The Asad Kharals, VOA (urdu) , Sarah Jawad ( the KNOWN fake ID of Ahmed Noorani and Murtaza Ali shah that was Exposed so many times and was even mocked by journalists openly that they dumped it and now they have created another one, Sidra Memon)... We all know these gangs anyways, but be mindful.
9) I have personally STOPPED clicking on ANY link that Shouts "CLICK BAIT" to me, no matter how interesting or appealing the news is for me. I just simply ignore them.
10) There is a FAKE NEWS BUSTER Twitter handle of Information department ( https://twitter.com/FakeNews_Buster | @FakeNews_Buster) USE it to verify. You may find Many if not all fake news rebuttals there. Although already there are so many fake accounts of this account floating around, No surprise. @INsafPK is another Dedicated account to rebut fake news related to the current ruling party i.e. PTI. Don't expect EVERYTHING but you will find most of the pressing propaganda issues busted there.
11) If you see a Screenshot or Graphic of a News Channel headline, breaking news, Check straight away at the relevant news channel/newspaper's website, Twitter handle or Facebook page. If you don't find it there, then it is obviously false, if you do, then see point number 1.
12) Anyone can fall for fake news or a tempting graphic full of lies, even Journalists but stop believing the Journalist, who posts a Fake news and instead of APOLOGISING and clarifying that it was fake, deletes it quietly after being caught.
13) for court cases, I have found it best to follow a few court reporters who give word to word account of what was said in the court room. I have stopped following ANY channels reporting for the last 2 years on Court cases. if you do, then try to make a distinction between facts and opinions and traverse at least two to three different channels. When I say Different Channels, I mean channels with different known inclinations. To me, it is BEST to just get a report on court proceeding, word to word if you can. A few court reporters like Siddique Jan and inam ullah khattak I have tried and tested them to be thorough in their court reporting.
14) KNOW the source of your news, We all know the tilt of media houses in Pakistan , so do your own research on a news keeping in mind the obvious tilt and past of the source.
15) FIGHT the urge of being the First Person who broke the news to the family and friends. They will know it from abundantly available sources, everyone has a mobile, TV and access to social media. Post it ONLY after confirmation. not being the first person to break the news is not important But your CREDIBILITY is Priceless!!!
