Debunking Misinformation in a ‘Fake News’ Era
Our mobile devices have become our holy grail. More like our third hand to be exact. They are our go-to for many reasons beyond just texting and calling.
Just like our phones have facilitated tasks we perform daily, getting informed is as easy as one-two-three. With Twitter becoming the modern daily newspaper, going through trending topics and hashtags provides us with the latest updates.
However, with the easy access to a smartphone, laptop and social media — just about anyone can conceive and edit news stories. What is the result? The emergence of fake news.
The term “fake news” was popularized by Donald Trump and he mainly uses it to describe the negative press about him. This term reduces the reliability in serious news coverage. In 2017, Trump cut off CNN’s Jim Acosta by telling him: “Your organization’s terrible…you are fake news.”
Think of fake news as a cold, since it is “contagious” and can easily spread. With one person posting false information online, it can reach a massive audience and eventually fall into the hands of a journalist who can risk misinforming the public.
From social media to imposter websites, fake news is everywhere. According to First Draft, Reddit reported in 2013 a theory that a missing Brown University student was a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing.
Chapter 2 of the Verification Handbook says we should treat with skepticism the information on social media like any other source. Gathering the proper documentation (pictures, videos, etc.) to prove your suspicions is key.
So now the question is: how do we confirm certain news as false? Here are a series of steps I took to verify the validity of a Tweet.
Step One: Research
For this part, I used TweetDeck to find Tweets that were specific to the topic I was looking for, which was poll results by state. I looked through election related hashtags such as #Biden #Trump #Elections #TrumpPence2020 #BidenHarris2020. From my research, I found this Tweet that showed poll results from Michigan.
Step Two: Find the Identification Code
Each post on social media has a unique identification code that is used to find whether or not the photo or video has appeared on other platforms. Pictured above, the tweet’s identification code is underlined in orange.
After typing the identification code in the search bar, nothing related to the post appeared.
Step Three: Find the Post’s Metadata
Metadata is specific information about the photo or video. The information includes: location, date and time it was taken, and camera model. For pictures, EXIF data works best. To find the EXIF data for the picture, I used Jeffrey’s Image Metadata Viewer. Since it is a screenshot of Michigan’s poll results, there is no camera model or date/time the picture was taken.
Step Four: Find the Date and Time Stamp
The date and time stamp is used to identify when a post was uploaded. This piece of information is underlined in green and is found in the Tweet screenshot above. To find when the picture or video was taken (not uploaded), you can refer to its metadata. Again, since the picture I used was a screenshot, this information is not available.
Step Five: Find Digital Footprint
A digital footprint is used to tie an individual to a piece of data. To find a digital footprint, you can use their full name, email, home address and phone number. For this part, I searched the user’s full name on Webmii.
From the results, I found his social media accounts, the company he works for and other content that he posts. He has a small digital footprint, since the last time he was active on Instagram and YouTube was in 2019.
Upon further research, I found that the company in the screenshot, Trafalgar Group, is a pro-Trump opinion polling agency. They deliver their questionnaires by emails, texts and live callers. Therefore, the Tweet is false because it comes from a biased source and he posted it as election results. In actuality, Biden is leading Michigan, as reported by CNN Politics, Politico and Yahoo.
It is easier to believe a fake news story rather than to fact-check and verify its accuracy. A journalist’s responsibility is to inform the public with accurate and recent news, which means taking the extra step is necessary.
