…….” to err is human”, right?
We’ve all heard quotes about how humans are meant to make mistakes; mistakes help you grow; making mistakes is the only way to be better and yada yada yada.
Now, Newzera is all about learning, unlearning and relearning, so mistakes are a big part of our path to greatness.
But we’re not big fans of lying, deception, cheating and all those other things that humans end up doing for their ulterior motives. TBH, that’s where the whole problem with humanity comes in. But let’s not go down that rabbit hole, just get back on track and talk a little more about fake news.
Sometimes, fake news is a mistake, but more often than not, it’s a choice.
How?
Well, fake news comes in two shapes: Misinformation and Disinformation. Perhaps what you didn’t know is that these two are not interchangeable.
Misinformation & Disinformation: What’s the difference?
You read a post on Instagram that says Jlo performed at Katrina Kaif’s wedding and excitedly shared the news with your best friend over a DM. A few days later, the news was proven to be false.
Now, what you did: Misinformation.
You didn’t have any idea it wasn’t true, right?
But what the page posting the news probably did: Disinformation.
They published a story about two big stars to get more views and likes. Those malicious rating hogs, playing with your emotions like that!
Platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp are not the only culprits though. Mainstream media outlets have been just as much participants in the race for views and subscriptions, but that’s an age-old story that we don’t need to revisit.
To be fair, we can’t ignore the answers that have risen bravely from the ashes of journalistic integrity. Independent fact-checking platforms like PolitiFact, alt.news and Snopes are working hard to demystify and debunk fake news. But is it ideal? And if not, then what is?
Ideal would be that you never encounter fake news in the first place and you can trust what you read. That you don’t have to go to 3 sites to check whether, what you read or see on a legacy news outlet, actually happened or if it’s just a rating gimmick.
Some may say “We don’t live in an ideal world.” and acceptance is the only way. But we at Newzera stan never settling.
Newzera is changing the direction of journalism and taking the world along to make it a more ideal place. How, you ask?
Well, we can’t give everything away all at once, can we? Stay tuned and till then, don’t forget to hit the clap button.
Check out the other two blogs of the fake news series -(Part 1, Part 3)
