Looking at the digital age and trends we are in today, the online space has become so vibrant when it comes to the need to source for news. Quite a number of us will turn to the online news sources for the latest and trending news, whether it is reading a newspaper online or sharing some bit of news with friends and family online.
While this happens to be the case, the fact is that the online news sources actually still happen to be some of the hardest sources of news to verify anyway. The reason for this is looking at the fact that there will be some of the early reports on these media sources that will turn out to be false which will still get circulating and spreading on these platforms with a number going on to spread them for a number of reasons and interests they may be having in these pieces of news, however false they may be, like for their political reasons, commercial and for some, it’s all for the fun they derive in this.
What’s even more worrying when it comes to online news sources is the fact that it has become a trend that misinformation or misleading news will spread so fast like bushfire more so in this digital age, spreading from one to the other and in no time, it will be spread to millions around. Take a case like we had in the 2006 elections in the US where it was realized and reported that false news stories were spread faster and more widely than the real ones.
These are some of the reasons why it would be important to verify online news stories and sources. It is actually so important to ensure that before you go about sharing that piece of information and news that you have sourced online, verify the online news source and be sure that the news is indeed accurate and up to date and the source is as well an authentic one.
By and large, sorting facts from the fictional pieces has never been easy more so looking at the changes we have seen in how news is produced and as well consumed. By and large, as a result of this, and the challenge to verify news sources more so online news sources, it has become a lot more easier for the spreading of false information, some doing this knowingly and some unknowingly.
The first thing that should tell you of a good and trustworthy online news source is one that has an open declaration and a commitment to accuracy of their news stories. The online news source should be one that as well has a policy for openly retracting and correcting any errors there may be on their news stories.