MEMO FROM NARA

“Fake news” – is the talk of the day. It’s sometimes referred as ‘yellow journalism’ or ‘false propaganda’ or ‘lying press.’ Such news was prevalent even in ancient times. It trickled down the time and today people started feeling it. Basically human beings are news-hungry. They like to know what happened around them. News comes in news-papers (print media) and electronic media such as TV, internet and many other devices. There are news reporters all over the world to gather news and pass on to their news media houses. The gathered news enters the print and electronic media in turn. Instant news is announced as ‘breaking news’. The news thus announced is invariably believed by all of us. In fact, most of the news is real. Some of them are fake or paid news. Such malpractices in the media world are not uncommon.

In social media like Face book, twitter, whatsapp etc. anyone from anywhere can post news and views with ease. Those who visit these social media have to decide whether the news posted is real or fake. Sometimes the fake news is shared and they reach millions of people. Photos and videos are morphed in some cases. With the available technology it becomes possible for anyone to do this magic. There are people who believe these magic and share to his/her friends and those friends in turn share to their friends. Thus there is no end to the spread of this magic in no time.

All these activities create thrill in the minds of people. Finding fault with the existing traditional customs or political personalities or any other individual is an unpleasant activity. Social media is only for expressing one’s genuine view. It may be accepted or may not be accepted by others. Responsible persons are expected to understand whether the views are fake or true. Governments are seriously thinking of curbing fake news in media because some fake news is dangerous.

Another aspect of fake news or views is to discredit a person or a product or a service. If the fake news says that a particular product is bad for health people try to avoid buying that product. Similarly the services offered by someone or NGO is discredited by saying that the person is corrupt or the organization is involved in underground activities. As a result the reputation of a person of a NGO is brought down.

“Fake news” – Can we control?  How to identify fake news? One way is to know the source of the news. If the source is genuine then we can believe the news. Similarly the credibility of the author of such news has to be checked. Also one can look into the date of the news. Above all one has to use ones intelligence to analyse whether the news is fake or not.

Therefore the important thing is to curb the fake news and it is urgent too. In today’s world, all kinds of news is spreading throughout the world like forest fire. Necessary legislation has to be laid out so that fake news is abolished from all kinds of media. People will be free of unverified and unwanted news. Some of the standard news media still publish or broadcast genuine news. Hence the media themselves have to take care of fake news. Also those who read news should also be careful in spreading or sharing such news to others. That will go a long way to put an end to “fake news.”