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How Not to Fall into Fake News Trap

Alternative Problem-Solving Pattern

I. Introduction

Have you ever received the news that has surprising titles that lures you to open the link? Do you consider whether there is a catch before clicking those links? In fact, we are always under great risk from the ubiquitous spread of fake news. In modern society, this trend is becoming more and more common worldwide, including Taiwan. According to Shevon Desai (2022), fake news is defined as some certain stories or information which are counterfeit, without strong evidence or testimony to the facts. People with bad intentions may even design them as “clickbait”,which is the most common way of spreading fake news by using misleading headlines with exaggerating words to catch the reader's eye. Fake news can seriously confuse the public's cognition of the facts, and it even causes political conflicts between countries. Fake news is a pressing matter around the world that we should make solutions to solve as soon as possible.

II. Background & Problem

As social media have become more and more popular, it gives fake news the access to quickly spread across the world than before. We conducted a survey and found that 92 people in total, and over half of them have college degrees. From our survey, about 81.3 % of people think that the popularity of social media is the main reason for this wide spreading crisis (Figure 1). A plenty of disinformation will bring negative impacts not only to readers but also those who are involved in. According to our research, 76 out of 92 participants have been deceived by the fake news (Figure 2). That is a huge number. The types of fake news that those participants usually encounter are entertainment, life and politics. If the government does not take action to suppress fake news, it will cause severe consequences to our society. According to Media Defence (2021), the harm brought by fake news may cause unrest in society, share prices and elections. Furthermore, it can destroy a person’s health and reputation. The worst thing is that it can lead to distrust between people and the government. In order to lower the harm caused by fake news, we have come up with 3 solutions and to assess its feasibility.

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Figure 1:

The factors of spread of fake news

Figure 2 :

The percentage of population is deceived by the fake news

III. Evaluation of Alternative Solution 1

One of the solutions is to develop media literacy. According to Cynthia Vinney (2022), media literacy refers to using our critical thinking skills to identify the transmission of passages, signs, symbols through mass media. How can media literacy fight against fake news? Niall McNulty (2021) declared that media literacy helps us analyze the information from different perspectives and judge the facticity of them from the media. Based on our research, 55 out of 92 respondents agree that developing media literacy is the most effective way to prevent us from falling into a fake news trap (Figure 3). Besides, some supporters mentioned that media literacy is a first line of defense to protect the audience who is the first-hand information receiver from fake news traps. Nonetheless, there are still 21 out of 92 percent of respondents who reckon that developing media literacy is not an effective method (Figure 3). Some of them argued that “It is time consuming to practice it.” On the other hand, some people stated that “It totally can not reduce the quantities of fake news at its root.” Consequently, it seems that developing media literacy does not take effect immediately in the short term, and the efficacy of it is limited to a certain extent.

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Figure 3:

Effectiveness of developing media literacy

IV. Evaluation of Alternative Solution 2

In addition to developing media literacy, the second solution to implement is to establish a third-party news fact-checking agency. According to the International Fact-Checking Network (2015), the agency works as a checkpoint to identify the news’ authenticity. Many countries have adopted this method to fight against the disinformation. Recently, Taiwan has established a fact check center. Other than that, the platform also works with other social media such as Line, Facebook, Google and so on. The organization reports the correct news without bias and stays objective. During the process of checking the authenticity, the platform uses AI and to support the employees to identify the disinformation and show the result to the citizens. In our survey, 33 out of 91 people think that this method is not effective enough to solve the problem (Figure 5). Here are their thoughts: the main reason this institution is not useful is because it will restrict the freedom of speech and the press, other opinions like it is difficult to have an organization that is completely objective or this agency is hard to connect with people. To sum up, the third-party fact checking organization has professional people to examine the information before the news comes out. However, when the news is examined by certain workers in the institution, it is hard to guarantee that there will be no one deliberately controlling the news.

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Figure 4:

Effectiveness of establishing third-party news-checking agency

V. Evaluation of Alternative Solution 3

The third solution to consider is that the government should make laws to fight against fake news. The advantage of making laws is that the fine and crime responsibility are high enough to terrify people from committing the crime. Taiwan has not yet established any specific laws that focus on fake news. Most of the punishments for fake news are adopted by the existing laws. But in some countries, they have designed specific laws to cope with disinformation. In Singapore, the nation has passed a law that those who violate the act will face a huge fine and be sent into jail for 10 years in 2019. In Germany, the Network Enforcement Law (2017) force demands social media platforms to remove illegal comments in 24 hours once reported or else they will receive a huge penalty. Although the severe punishments can discourage people, there are some downsides about this approach. According to Jamie Wiseman (2020), he says that though the laws are created to combat the disinformation, the definition is too vague that it can become a tool for people to manipulate society. In our survey, about 37 people think that establishing new laws is the least effective way to reduce the number of fake news (Figure 4). Here are the reasons: the process to legislate takes too much time and it is complicated for people to understand. Once the benefits brought by fake news are far greater than the punishment of the law, people will not be afraid of any punishment, and the most critical factor is that the laws cannot immediately react to fake news when they come out. Considering the aforementioned reasons, establishing new laws is not effective enough to decrease the quantity of fake news. 

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Figure 5:

Effectiveness of establishing new laws

VI. Recommendation and Conclusion

By referring to the research from scholars and summarizing respondents’ opinions about the effectiveness of these three solutions (figure 6), we suggest that developing media literacy is the most effective method to tackle concerns of fake news. Despite the fact that we cannot deny that developing media literacy may not directly avoid the expansion of fake news, if we can protect ourselves from becoming the victim of the fake news through developing media literacy, the negative impacts of fake news will gradually reduce. To enhance media literacy, we proposed that the government should incorporate media literacy into school education programs. According to Federica Galli (2020)’s research and test, students who adopted the media literacy intervention gained higher awareness of the information from newspapers, TV, and social media than control groups. Moreover, they experienced an increased sense of confidence in dealing with media influence so that they will not easily be misled by media framing. Through this proposal, students also can cultivate their media literacy in a good environment with various sources. In conclusion, it is important to develop media literacy to analyze and synthesize the rationality of information and cooperate with the authorities so that we can enjoy the media more and maximize its convenience.

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Figure 6:

Effectiveness of three solutions

References

 Vinney. C (2022). What Is Media Literacy?

Retrieved from: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-media-literacy-5214468
 

Galli. F (2021). Promoting Media Literacy Online: An Intervention on Performance and Appearance Enhancement Substances with Sport High School Students.

Retrieved from: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/11/5596


IFCN Poynter (2015). What is the International Fact-Checking Network?

Retrieved from: https://www.poynter.org/ifcn/


Wiseman. J (2020). Rush to pass ‘fake news’ laws during Covid-19 intensifying global media freedom challenges.

Retrieved from: https://ipi.media/rush-to-pass-fake-news-laws-during-covid-19-intensifying-global-media-freedom-challenges/


Desai. S (2023). Lies and Propaganda: How to Sort Fact from Fiction.

Retrieved from: https://guides.lib.umich.edu/fakenews


Wrench. J (2011). Stand Up, Speak Out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking.

Retrieved from: https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp59488

Sources

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