The online space, as it is with the other things that we do and engage in, has become such a space that has been used to source for news as a matter of fact. Quite a number of us will turn to the online news sources for the latest and trending news, whether it is reading a newspaper online or sharing some bit of news with friends and family online.
While this happens to be the case, the fact is that the online news sources actually still happen to be some of the hardest sources of news to verify anyway. The reason for this is looking at the fact that there will be some of the early reports on these media sources that will turn out to be false which will still get circulating and spreading on these platforms with a number going on to spread them for a number of reasons and interests they may be having in these pieces of news, however false they may be, like for their political reasons, commercial and for some, it’s all for the fun they derive in this.
What’s even more worrying when it comes to online news sources is the fact that it has become a trend that misinformation or misleading news will spread so fast like bushfire more so in this digital age, spreading from one to the other and in no time, it will be spread to millions around. Talking of false news and how quick they spread and how they get so much coverage online as opposed to what would be for the factual ones, look at the case there was during the 2006 US elections where false and misleading information actually got to spread and receive far more coverage than what was given to the factual and true stories.
Actually looking at these basic facts when it comes to online news, we see the need for us to ensure that we have so thoroughly vetted and verified to authentic our online news sources. It is actually so important to ensure that before you go about sharing that piece of information and news that you have sourced online, verify the online news source and be sure that the news is indeed accurate and up to date and the source is as well an authentic one.
By and large, sorting facts from the fictional pieces has never been easy more so looking at the changes we have seen in how news is produced and as well consumed. As a result of these, it has become a lot more easy to spread misinformation some doing this intentionally and for some unintentionally.
One of the things that you need to look out for when it comes to sourcing for news from an online source of news is that of making sure that this is such a source that has an open declaration to a commitment to the accuracy of their news articles and stories. The online news source should be one that as well has a policy for openly retracting and correcting any errors there may be on their news stories.