Rumors and Uncontrolled Reports

     

    Technology have truly evolved through the years and with this, news became faster and more accessible to the public. Yes, it seems like this is a big help especially that information is a necessity. But as news continues to become more accessible, so as the spreading of rumors and uncontrolled reports.

    Back in the day you only hear rumors within your community where your neighbors stitch different stories to accommodate their theories regarding a certain issue but now, rumors spread like wild fire with the help of social media. That is the reason why, we as users of the internet should always consider ourselves as journalist because the responsibility of stretching information rests in our shoulders. 

    False reports can easily circulate with incredible speed with the help of Twitter, Youtube, Facebook Blogs etc. The downside of this is that, some major news organizations has the tendency to believe these rumors and reports and publish it without confirming the actual details. That is why, we should always ask questions regarding a particular subject especially if the one who posted it is an anonymous account.

To guard ourselves against this rumors and uncontrolled report, you can note the following examples:

    Celebrities are the most common target of uncontrolled reports. Some fans can be very into their idol's lives and buy or read anything that has the name of their idol in it. Bloggers and magazine publishers take advantage of this and use this as a means to get the buyers and subscribers.

    

    Trolls can be very smart, like in this next example. Fox News Channel is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City and a someone had use their name to make a troll account to spread a death hoax and the other disturbing fact is that, a lot of people believed it. This reminds us to always check the legitimacy of our resources.

This is a rumors that spread a year ago about how the Corona virus is nothing but a bacteria and can be easily treated with aspirin. Rumors like this don't have actual research to back it up and yet people believed it. If reading reports regarding health or science, make sure to seek for a study that supports the report.

The following are examples that shows indication that a news is legitimate.

    

    The post above stated that a famous media personality became a victim of a shooting incident. This proved to be a false report because a media website made the time to go through this personality 's twitter account to investigate. Of course, there might be a possibility that a Twitter account could be a troll. In that case, find the blue circle with a with check beside the account name which indicates that it is a verified account.

    In the next article, we can see how the publisher indicate a video of Sec. Francisco Duque from the Department of Health. 

    

    The next article is again, about health but this time, the publisher indicated a link to a research paper to back up their claims.

   Usually our elders are very prone to believe this false information and so we need to explain to them that not all things posted in the internet are true. They could be very stubborn but bare with them for  they are born in a different time. This era have been a very dangerous in terms of information. It is a need to keep in mind to always guard ourselves and the people around us because these days, a simple post can create riot