Fact Checking & Media Dispersion

The Media & Dispersion of Information 

The media has made communication and dispersion of information easy and fast. There are many different types of media, one of the most popular being social media. People use social media to voice their opinions, gather information and interact with others. 

False Information Distribution

There is information everywhere on the Internet, both truthful and false. The Internet is great when the correct information is dispersed, but what happens when the wrong information is spread? The animosity between people increases and opinions are formed with no grounding or support. With more and more people posting and sharing stories, we forget to double check which ones are true and which ones are false. This can be out of laziness or because there is no time to do so, but it is of the utmost importance to always double check what you read online. Think of it this way, what if false information was said about you and no one double checked if it was right or not? Below is a short video on the effects of not fact-checking:

*warning the audio for this video sucks, watch it on mute. 

Easy Ways to Fact Check & Why We Don't

There are many ways to get the truth behind stories and more and more websites are being created for the sole purpose of fact-checking. Snopes is a great website that sets out to discover the truth about stories. You can easily just google the topics being stated in the story or you can look for websites such as Snopes. Many people's lives get ruined over false information every day. A 2016 article written by Farhad Manjoo in the New York Times explains how the Internet is losing its grip on the truth. It explains we are not rational when presented with information and the abundant number of media sources clouds our views. Humans have biases and opinions, and when information is presented that correlates to your biases and views, you are more likely to believe them. This is a serious problem but it can be corrected with just five minutes of your time: FACT CHECK!