Looking at Verification Online

This twitter post told the story of an issue on a plane that never happened. The writer later said that it was made up--along with this image.

December 16, 2013

One of the most essential of all News Literacy concepts is that of verification – the art and science of which is crucial to finding reliable, trustworthy and actionable news and information. But in the fast-paced online world, is reliability really so important? Or is it instead somehow old-fashioned, and destined to become more and more outmoded in a digital competition for page views and viral video? One thing is certain, as two recent cases amply illustrate: digital news sites are increasingly blurring the line between fact and fiction, and saying that it is all part of doing business in the rough-and-tumble world of online journalism. As the New York Times recently noted:

“if a story is viral, truth may be taking a beating.”

“Several recent stories rocketing around the web, picking up millions of views, turned out to be fake or embellished,” Times reporters Ravi Somaiya and Leslie Kaufman wrote, “such as a Twitter tale of a Thanksgiving feud on a plane, later described by the writer as a short story; a child’s letter to Santa that detailed an Amazon.com link in crayon, but was actually written by a grown-up comedian in 2011; and an essay on poverty that prompted $60,000 in donations until it was revealed by its author to be impressionistic rather than strictly factual.” Although never intended to be taken as fact, to the media outlets that published them, these hoaxes “represented the lightning-in-a-bottle brew of emotion and entertainment that attracts readers and brings in lucrative advertising dollars.”

Moreover, when the tales turned out to be phony, the online news organizations involved -- Gawker, BuzzFeed, The Huffington Post and Mashable among them — admitted that little will be done about it as long as the clicks keep coming. Instead, editors at these sites cited trade-offs in balancing accuracy with the need to act quickly in a hyper-connected age. “We are dealing with a volume of information that it is impossible to have the strict standards of accuracy that other institutions have,” said John Cook, editor in chief of Gawker, which highlighted the essay on poverty.

Another recent example is that of a waitress and former Marine who drew an outpouring of sympathy after claiming a religious couple left a message insulting her lifestyle instead of a tip. Dayna Morales made national headlines and received an outpouring of public support and at least $3,000 in donations for her story until it was revealed that the viral “Lesbian Marine Waitress” story was untrue. Michael Knote, the founder of a gay advocacy website site that initially posted Morales’ story, later told ABC News he feels betrayed by the whole episode, and a “responsibility to find the truth.”

QUESTIONS:

• Is there a different standard for truth among online news organizations such as Gawker and Buzzfeed? Should there be?
• How much do you care if a story purporting to be real actually is?
• What responsibility do journalists and news outlets who post or link these stories have to make sure they are true? Is it their job to make sure something is not a hoax before they cover or link to it?
  What if any real-world consequences can fake stories have?
• How many viral posts — whether articles, videos or photographs — do you click on each week? How many on average do you share on social media? How often do you check to make sure what you are sharing or commenting on is real?
• How much more careful are you with online sources when you are doing work for school than when you are simply surfing the Web for fun? How do you decide what is a reliable source for your schoolwork?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

• “Can you fact check a twerking video?” predicts 2014 will be “the year” for debating what news is – and if there should be a new and different standard in the online world.
• And this post shows exactly how you can fact-check a twerking video!
• Finally, this link to the New York Times Learning Network includes a discussion thread where students are discussing how to know if what you are reading online is true: