Unholy competition among media leads to rumours, fake news: Experts
The importance of separate fact-checking platforms in media houses is increasing worldwide as the trend to spread fake news and rumours is on the rise due to an unholy competition among media and technological advancement, experts have said.
They also suggested for publishing or broadcasting a news after proper fact-checking and not just being indulged in competition as these fake news or rumours can be damaging for any person, group or community.
The observations came at a training workshop on 'Rumours, fake news and fact checking' on Sunday at the National Institute of Mass Communication (NIMCO) at Darus Salam in the capital. Dhaka Reporter's Unity (DRU) and NIMCO jointly organised the workshop where about 50 journalists participated.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
Referring to a study conducted in 2020, Independent Journalist and Researcher M Abul Kalam Azad said that social media are the sources of 82% rumours.
In the study titled 'Social Media Rumours in Bangladesh', it was found that the mainstream media is the source of 18% of the fake news.
It was also found that 34% fake news is political while 16% fake news is related to health and education, 11% related to crime and 11% related to religion.
There are two types of information related to fake news and rumours – misinformation and disinformation, Azad said.
Misinformation is wrong information which is spread by mainstream media or social platforms without any motive while disinformation is target-oriented and spread for political gains, he explained.
It has been observed that despite media are now spreading fake news and rumours more due to an unholy competition, they are hardly apologising to the audience and just delete the items from the online platforms to get rid of the responsibilities which is very unprofessional.
Azad suggested the journalists present at the workshop using various paid or unpaid fact-checking tools before publishing any information.
NIMCO Director General Shahin Islam was present at the event, among others.
