{"id":51258,"date":"2019-08-14T16:43:44","date_gmt":"2019-08-14T11:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/?page_id=51258"},"modified":"2019-08-14T16:43:50","modified_gmt":"2019-08-14T11:13:50","slug":"answered-in-the-era-of-growing-social-media-tentacles-across-the-globe-scrutiny-of-the-facts-and-data-is-need-of-the-hour-discuss","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answered-in-the-era-of-growing-social-media-tentacles-across-the-globe-scrutiny-of-the-facts-and-data-is-need-of-the-hour-discuss\/","title":{"rendered":"[Answered] \u201cIn the era of growing social media tentacles across the globe, scrutiny of the facts and data is need of the hour.\u201d Discuss."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Demand of the question<\/strong>
Introduction.<\/strong> Contextual Introduction.
Body. <\/strong>Consequences of fake news and propaganda.
Conclusion. <\/strong>Way forward. <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n

Fake news has existed since the dawn of the printing press but in the age of internet and social media, it has spread its tentacles. Manipulation of algorithms of social media and search engines to reach large audiences and mislead news consumers is a global trend now. Fake video clips, news stories with morphed media logos, bots, paid commentators have become very common. This demands a vigil society and scrutiny of all the facts and data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consequences\nof fake news spread:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Political:\n<\/strong>Fake\nnews is a threat to democracy. Easy access to large amounts of data, made it\npossible for political parties to profile individual voters and flood them with\nnews, fake and real, that influence their voting behaviour. <\/strong>Political parties\ntry to get political benefits by polarising the voter\u2019s mind.<\/strong><\/li>
  2. Economic:\n<\/strong>Fake\nnews has been used to deceive illiterate people financially. Example- Bitcoin\nbenefits, Chit fund schemes introduced the concept of online fraud through spam\nemails. Hoaxes of GPS chips in the Rs 2,000 note after the demonetisation\ninitiative of the government through both media and WhatsApp messages led to\nwidespread confusion among holders of the new note.<\/strong><\/li>
  3. Society:\n<\/strong>Fake\nnews can be used to create a communal environment. It influence the minds of\ncommon people and use social weaknesses to increase intolerance in the country.\nExample: Spreading fake photos to bring about communal clashes in the country. It\ncan also result in deaths. For example, rumours about child-lifters and cattle\nthieves led to mob attacks and deaths across India.<\/li>
  4. Security:\n<\/strong>Media\ncompanies in greed of getting TRPs and more viewership promote sensational news\nand false headlines. E.g circulation of false videos in Kashmir valley showing\nshocking attacks on the Army and inhumane repression of the civilians.<\/strong><\/li>
  5. International:<\/strong> The false portrayal\nof kashmir as a place of human right abuse by international media has created a\nfalse image of the nation. <\/li>
  6. People\u2019s\nfaith:<\/strong> Fake news has reduced people\u2019s belief in social, print and electronic\nmedia. In its purest form, fake news is completely made up, manipulated to\nresemble credible journalism and attract maximum attention and, with it,\nadvertising revenue.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    What\nshould be done?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Awareness\ncampaign: <\/strong>All the sections of the population must be made aware of the realities of\npropagandas and information war. <\/li>
    2. Ordinary consumers\nof news can play a big role by refusing to pass on what they cannot\nindependently verify with other sources.<\/li>
    3. Websites that mimic\nwell-known, credible media outlets in their name should be banned.<\/li>
    4. Cyber ombudsman to\ndeal with the credibility of news sources should be appointed to ensure right facts\nare reported.<\/li>
    5. Schools should\nteach children about critical thinking should instil a Behaviour of questioning\nand fact checking in them.<\/li>
    6. With the utilisation\nof metadata and human content moderation, government can prevent fake news,\nmisinformation and even punish bad actors.<\/li>
    7. The state police\nmachinery should be strengthened to catch anyone responsible for spreading fake\nmessages.<\/li>
    8. Government should have\nindependent agency to verify the data being circulated in social and other\nmedia. The agency should be tasked with presenting real facts and figures.<\/li>
    9. Government should\nhave mechanism for immediately issuing of notice against sites\/people\/agencies\ninvolved in spreading fake news through radio, messages, and media.<\/li>
    10. Social media\nwebsites should be made accountable of such activities so that it becomes their\nresponsibility to have better controlling restricting the spread of fake news.<\/li>
    11. It should be\nmandatory for Print and Electronic media to have internal mechanism for\nverifying incidents, facts and figures.<\/li>
    12. Public should not\nblindly trust any sensitive news and should not forward it to others and should\ninform concerned department about any fake post as soon as they come across. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Fake news can harm both democracy and the media business. Social vigilance against it is must. Proper actions need to be taken to ensure the distinction between news, opinion, and rumour. Hence it is high time that the government should take stern measures to curb fake news menace and protect Indian democracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Demand of the question Introduction. Contextual Introduction. Body. Consequences of fake news and propaganda. Conclusion. Way forward. Fake news has existed since the dawn of the printing press but in the age of internet and social media, it has spread its tentacles. Manipulation of algorithms of social media and search engines to reach large audiences… Continue reading [Answered] \u201cIn the era of growing social media tentacles across the globe, scrutiny of the facts and data is need of the hour.\u201d Discuss.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":49132,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-51258","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}