Owing to the boom in fake news, this is not a time to share and repost every article that comes with a tag ‘latest news today in Nigeria‘. Fake news is becoming a big issue. There are thousands of sites publishing a plethora of articles each day. This makes it hard to know what is credible and what is not. Even being smart in a particular field is not good enough to know what is factual and what is fiction – particularly significant when an attack is launched on climate change – you must be a detective.
With the aid of an editing professional, here are tips to know the accuracy of articles:
Find Facts
Most articles online contain anecdotes, commentary, and opinions. You should ignore all these and find facts. For instance when the writer says “68% of online articles have factual inaccuracies”, it is possible that the figure is cooked if they cannot refer to a credible survey firm. This means that when you spot a fact in an article, you should expect the reference to a source.
Source Evaluation
Let’s say you have spotted a fact “Most web articles are repeated.” And you know the source: X. Do you trust X. If you do, then they must be a well-known professional who has been providing facts over years. However, if the writer quotes W who is just a famous blogger but lacks the training in media and is not trustworthy, then you cannot trust the information.
Reach The Source
Once you have established that the publication got their facts from a trustworthy source, take a few minutes to find out if this is entirely true. Do not just trust what they say, go to the source (which you can search through google) to see the facts for yourself. In the report, you might notice the use of words like ‘some’, ‘all’ and ‘a lot’. To your dismay, you might realize that the words in the publication are exaggerated to excite you. Get closer to the facts source to get clear information.
It Is Tough Work
This process is exhausting considering that you have several publications to read. Fortunately, there are shortcuts you could use to ease the burden.
Magazines: Sites have different standards. Some publish hogwash while others employ meticulous fact-checkers – Most are in between. A large print magazine will provide you with the trusted news. When they claim to have done tests on certain products, they have actually done it.
Newspapers: Magazines have enough time to do their verifications — which is a luxury newspapers don’t have and as a result commit errors now and then. However, they do make corrections to build their reputation. You can trust their publications.
The Rest: Most websites and publications are unreliable. Well, plenty hit the target but others blatantly lie. Even some of the famous sites fail because they do not check their facts. You are also not looking for a publication that agrees with your political standing. Check who is funding their ideas to avoid them. However, you should not ignore all the latest news today in Nigeria. Be investigative in all that you read online.
