Sometimes no news is good news

What makes something newsworthy? Is it just something you don’t know? Is it something that’s interesting? How about something that could be true but isn’t really true? How about when it’s a straight out lie, but is still a good read? Is that news?

For a long time now, people have had a hard time telling the difference. Fake newsmakers in Macedonia, the Philippines and Africa (and some scattered across the U.S.) spending hours in front of a computer, coming up with stories that they can post on Facebook or on Google sites and use as “click bait” to draw people to their websites that were built to do nothing but showcase advertisements and bad information but encourage people to click on the ads, which earns the site-makers money.

For the majority of the history of Western mass media, this would be unheard of. Using lies and doctored photos on such a large scale to sucker people into believing this is actual, factual news goes against the integrity, honor and truth that the vast majority of American news media try to represent.

Now that we know who is making this fake news, we need to think about who is distributing it. How are these newsfakers getting their camouflaged misinformation to you? Actually, the same way that you get great Aunt Ruth’s snickerdoodle recipe: Facebook. According to a recent report, 62 percent of Americans get news from Facebook, and 66 percent of people get the majority of their news from social media.

We expect our newspapers, TV reporters and radio news jockeys (not the talk show yakkers) to give us truthful, relevant information, and if we found out they were just making crap up, we would call them out on it, boycott their media and stop going to them for news. And rightfully so.

This, however, is a new world. We go to nontraditional sources for our news, companies that aren’t held to the same standards as traditional “legacy” media, who aren’t bound to a code of ethics for how they disseminate information because they aren’t official news outlets.

That said, even if they didn’t intend to be a news outlet, society has decided to make these new media giants de facto news sources. This means that they need to be held to some kind of standard. Maybe not the same standards as traditional news media, but it has to be something better than “anything goes.”

Since the recent criticism over lax oversight of fake news from the recent presidential election connected to Facebook and Google, there have been some changes. Facebook updated its terms of service, banning fake news, and Google has changed the availability of its “ad sense” program to discourage its use on fake news sites, and sites that distribute misinformation.

While a great first step, there is still a long climb ahead of us before we 21st century citizens arrive at a balance between the freedom that technology affords us, and the integrity and restraint that real news reporting demands. What can you do to climb this mountain? Well, like anything, if there is no money in it, there is no need for it to exist on a large scale.

The MHCC library has again distributed a list of hints for recognizing false and misleading news stories at http://www.goo.gl/wocz6r and goo.gl/qcsy18. This is helpful information to keep you informed online and help you from being tricked into believing a lie. Also, we need to make sure we are letting Facebook and Google know we are counting on them for our news. Do all you can to let them know – email them – and circulate good and correct information and encourage your friends to do the same.

One thing to remember however, is that all of the news – good, bad, and indifferent – comes from someplace, usually from a reporter who has tracked down the story, done the research and published the information via a traditional media outlet like a newspaper or magazine. Then, that article is taken and sprinkled across the web like frosting on a cake. Unless we make sure those traditional news outlets stick around, Google and Facebook won’t have a legitimate place to get those articles from.

Getting news from social media is convenient and makes your day easier. But we need to make sure that we are savvy about what we believe and what we share so that we aren’t tipping the balance between technology and integrity to the wrong side of the scales.