BALANCING the advantages and techniques of social media with traditional practices like verification: that’s one of the challenges journalists face today.
In yesterday’s 888 News Forum, columnist and lawyer Clarence Paul Oaminal said it’s also the responsibility of readers to verify if what they’ve read is true, in response to the challenge of fake news.
The forum was part of the activities of the 25th Cebu Press Freedom Week.
Razel Cuizon, City Hall Association of Reporters in Media (CHARM) president and a staff member of SunStar Cebu, said that social media has helped enrich her coverage by allowing her to report live via Facebook and post photos from the field, even as she prepares to write stories for the newspaper.
Rolando Morallo, a SuperBalita editor, mentioned the challenge of helping educate readers sift through all the information they get from mainstream and social media.
“At some point, it (social media) will settle down and somehow be integrated in the more traditional media, but at a different level. We must educate our readers,” said Morallo.
Mars Mosqueda of Manila Bulletin said that social media, overall, benefits mainstream media outlets, although the rising presence of fake news there needs to be addressed.
“If you post on social media about an illegal act, a politician may counteract through fake news,” said Mosqueda.
Last April 24, Facebook confirmed that it was addressing the spread of news articles “that purport to be factual, but which contain intentional misstatements of fact with the intention to arouse passions, attract readership, or deceive.”
It said that in many cases, these false news items were then spread through networks of fake accounts, apparently to meet certain political objectives. (EOB)