Fact checking is key

Maelyn Kizer

Mk631818@ohio.edu

Fact-Checking is Key

In the world today when we talk about news and the way people get their news, the main topic that gets brought into the conversation is the internet. The internet is a place where you can sell your car, buy a house, watch music videos and keep up with the latest political debate all at once but what the internet doesn't warn you about is how easy it is to post and create false information. According to PewResearch.com, the amount of Americans that rely on the internet to get their news totaled over 40 million in the past year. These numbers are going to climb as the technological field continues to expand, and as the technology progresses so should the awareness of fake news. 

The idea that everything on the internet is true is one that needs to be put to rest almost immediately. Fake news is trending and is an unavoidable occurrence in the internet-savvy society we all live in. Fake news is ultimately when public domains and "news sources" put out information that is false for their audience to view. The reasons behind falsifying information can vary but according to Mindwiper.com, it comes from lack of knowledge, popularity, and pure satire purposes. 

 

In order to know if a story on the internet is trustworthy or not, the reader must do some further research on both the topic and the website as well as do some extra digging on the story itself.  This process is called fact-checking. Fact-checking is key to finding out the truth behind a storyline. There are many ways to go about fact-checking, RealSimple.com states a few; checking every link provided in the article, searching for credible, recognizable names throughout the story, check the writer's social media, reverse search any images or even skim the piece for grammatical mistakes.

 

We live in a world that uses social media as a way to keep up with loved ones lives instead of a phone call, where teenagers send images through a screen instead of talking face to face, and toddlers are watching YouTube instead of playing outside, we need to be aware of the good and the bad that the internet has to offer. News and information found on the internet is a part of our everyday lives and should be evaluated through fact-checking thoroughly before believing what it states. If readers can get into the habit of fact-checking stories that seem false, then the number of falsified information and news will become smaller and smaller until hopefully, it is just a distant memory.