The Philippines isn’t just facing a pandemic right now. Arguable claims — that misinterprets factual news — plague social media platforms as well.
Cartoon By: Ferdinand Laurente
Opinion By: Caster John Tabora
Being able to read this article means that it is more likely that you are blessed to have access to the internet. While I highly encourage people to use such privileges to our kababayans advantage by being vigilant to the administration’s system of governance, one must ensure that his/her claim(s) does not misinterpret facts.
With Covid-19 lying around, people are at a heightened stress as a lot are continuously bombarded with tons of news. It is no surprise that the majority resorted in concluding based on a trending tweet.
Twitter, a social media platform that allows one to reach many users quickly through tweeting and retweeting, determines trending tweets by using an algorithm based on who you follow, your interests, and your location that identifies topics that are popular at that very instant.
These trending tweets introduces “supposedly-non-existent-problems'' on current issues.
Take a news media company, for instance. Despite providing complete coverage of a press conference, there is still overlooked information by the masses. This happens whenever a controversial-one-line-tweet trend and tweet(s) related that’s not under a thread go unnoticed. People tend to conclude solely with the trending statement as their basis, regardless of how the whole presscon went.
Claiming without basing in a complete, factual information is as potent as the coronavirus.
Remember the time when people continuously ranted about how the gov’t cut the budget of the Department of Health by 10 billion Pesos? The budget was not cut and in fact raised in the final, approved budget. People had overlooked the latest news and continuously backed their opinions with false information without even knowing (READ: https://bit.ly/2vF6E8G and https://bit.ly/2QG9T79 ). Continuing such practice would spread fake news even faster than Coronavirus.
Unfortunately, catchy headlines may pose a problem as well. Headlines may possibly be of another context, compared to the article itself.
Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with catchy headlines, however, reading the headline without checking the article won’t let you understand the whole context. Not reading the article itself is an act of ignorance, thus, your claims with misinterpretations may be regarded as fake news.
You spread misinformation when you criticize without knowing the whole context first.
Without getting to the whole context of the issue, I am certain that one will misconceive the issue itself. A 280-character trending tweet isn’t enough to explain what happened to the whole press conference. A five-to-ten-word headline isn’t sufficient as well to understand why a #ProtectVico article is trending. If one continues to be insensible of what he/she fights for, fake news will always exist.
Understand the whole situation before creating a stand. News media companies archive all their articles. Read from multiple sources to validate your stand. Or better yet, read newspapers. Watch the television. It would help a lot to understand the whole situation. Other types of media will be your front liners against fake news.
Social media is a powerful tool, yet it still holds risks for people. In an endless battle among the keyboard warriors, know that it is never a wrong thing to voice out opinions, however, it may, if you carry on with your ignorance. Misinterpreting the issue will always follow ignorance. The internet is a heck of a big library, it wouldn’t hurt to back your claims first to avoid misinterpretation’s bigger pal, the fake news.
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