How media operators can tackle menace of fake news ― Olagunju

Against the backdrop of challenges posed by devastating consequences of fake news in the society, the editor, Saturday Tribune, Dr Lasisi Olagunju, on Thursday tasked media practitioners on the need to double-check sources of news item on social media.

He said it has become incumbent on the part of editors and news managers to investigate the credibility of authors of news items before going to press so as to avoid feeding the public with fake news and unsubstantiated reports.

Olagunju gave the charge in Osogbo while delivering a paper titled “Journalism, Social Media and Fake News: A Gatekeeper’s Perspective” at a dinner and award night organised by the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Osun State Council to commemorate its 2019 Press Week.

According to him, “every stakeholder in the information industry must be media literate. By this, I mean everybody should know how to evaluate reports, separate the grains (truth) from the chaff (lies).”

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“Verify the source. Click away from the story to investigate the site, its mission and its contact information. Read beyond the headline: Headlines can be outrageous in the effort to get clicks. Check deeply to discover the whole story.”

“Check the author: Do a quick search on the author. Is the author credible? Is he real? Check for supporting sources in the story. Click on the links. Determine if the information given actually supports the story”, Olagunju remarked

While contending that the advent of the social media had complicated things for the media everywhere, he observed that “sins of quacks and bloggers and online merchants of mischief are daily visited on the traditional media and its operatives by politicians and the state.”

“A key solution to the creation and spread of fake news is the adoption of transparency in government information management. A government that is run like a secret cult is a sure layer of fake news. A government that is opaque will manufacture lies to cover its black spots. When information is not available, bad, imaginative people will create anything to feed the news-starved market”, Olagunju asserted.

He, however, said “for the media to regain its strength, it must recreate itself, retool its personnel with 21st-century wisdom and knowledge, re-kit its technical operations with equipment to meet the demand of tomorrow and redefine its mission in a democracy and in a globalised world.”