With all the different methods of receiving news today, odds are that some of it is going to be fake.
The rise of the internet, smartphone and social media culture have been instrumental in breaking down the barriers that once helped hold fake news dissemination in check and because of this we have become more skeptical concerning what is accurate.
When we wake up in the morning, before we start our day, we check our phone. We check it while walking down the hall or in the five minutes before class and all the while are sifting through information that we can either accept, verify or disregard. In a world where people are becoming more connected through social media and social media is becoming more connected to the news, how can we trust what we see or hear?
Doug Fisher, senior instructor at USC's School of Journalism and Mass Communications, claims we are already doing it and will continue to get better at it during this change over on how we consume news.
“We’ve had fake news forever, it’s just that the internet has given it scale,” Fisher says. “We’re in this interregnum right now where we’re substituting the gatekeepers of the past that had institutional imprimatur … and we’re still struggling with what replaces that.”
Those who grew up in the time when news was read from largely trusted sources at appointed times are learning to verify what they see online while the younger generation, who is growing up in a world where information that must be questioned is thrust in their face, is developing their own ways to fight fake news.
Adding to Fisher's point that fake news has always been a part of our discourse, former dean Charles Bierbauer claims no matter how we work around fake news, no matter what media platform we migrate to, it is important to realize that it's going to follow us because "that's where the money is."
Fake news is, according to experts, nothing new. And because of internet access, no matter how fast we run it is going to chase us down just as fast to spread its lies.
That's an exhausting thought, considering how much information is out there to sift through already. There's sometimes not enough time in the day to read through it all and it may lead to becoming apathetic towards taking an interest in what is going on around them.
"Everything I read is false, why should I bother," says Bierbauer. "On the other hand, if I want to be politically involved I've got to figure out where can I get good information."
So how does Bierbauer foresee people validating their news? He says they will develop a trust with those they get it from and that trust will be the most important thing in deciding if the news is real. Fisher talks about the two most common methods of employing news verification is through either crowd validation or filters. While both have their merits, they will best be used in tandem.
“I think there’s a certain amount of feelings that the crowd will validate it,” says Fisher, describing his students. “I think part of it is developing your own filter bubbles, not totally a bad thing. Where it becomes a bad thing is where it becomes exclusionary.”
President Harris Pastides mentions concern over this very concept in his pre-spring break address. He states that only one in twenty students read news stories while the rest follow blindly a model of their choosing.
He expresses concerns about having enough time in the day set aside a moment to follow up with what peaks his interest. Additionally, according to a survey by the Knight Foundation and Gallup, Americans are swinging back to trusting established news agencies along with those individuals whose values align with their own while social media outlets such as Facebook are becoming less trusted since their failure to filter out fake news on their own.
But finding a news source you trust can be daunting and as Pastides mentioned, he and others don't have the time. Bierbauer however, doesn't see that as a problem.
"We do it for you," Bierbauer says. "The media have taken on that responsibility knowing that you might not have time or the wherewithal to check it out and so you've got things like fact check.org"
Although, foregoing social media and television in favor of established news agencies has its own list of problems. Free sites such as The Huffington Post or Drudge Report tend to have heavy political bias which cause some to be wary of their content but the more center oriented agencies such as the New York Times or Washington Post have paywalls that not everyone is comfortable adding to their list of bills.
While little aside from knowledge of bias can be done to counter the former, the latter can be avoided quite easily and in a way that fits into our busy schedules. Paywalls, particularly those of the New York Times, can be circumvented by either using a search engine or third party app to find the article you want to read in lieu of navigating to it directly from the home page.
Alternatively, instead of installing another app, browsers placed in incognito will get around many paywalls.
Like consumers, social media platforms need to learn what to trust and how to verify news. According to Facebook’s help pages, they are adding an additional 10,000 employees to identify and remove false content and are forcing political ads to be more transparent by requiring those paying for them to confirm their identity and for those identities to be more clear to the viewer.
They also have constructed a list of ten “Tips to Spot False News” to help their users become more news savvy.
At the end of the day however, Fisher says it comes down to the individual. “People will find a way to muddle through. The question is, do they in the process become cynical, detached and isolated relatively or do they figure out a way to apply those filters and still maintain an openness to the world?”