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Switzerland: During the labs and forum section of the 2019 World Forum for Democracy event in Strasbourg, France, Mr. Derek Bowler made powerful comments when asked how to deal with misinformation.He suggested that for a journalist to be able to detect fake news, the initial requirement is some experience in the field. Having an understanding of how falsehood begins to trend is the first step to identifying it and finding a way to shut it down before it gets to press.
Further, he explained that twitter, google, and Facebook needs to acknowledge they are the biggest newsrooms in the world. Taking Facebook in particular, The Facebook Journalism Project is working with third-party to check for the authenticity of the news, thereby taking responsibility for their platform. Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Facebook is going to provide users with quality journalism using a different tab.
However, it is important to note that Facebook is dealing with the issue of fighting misinformation the wrong way by engaging the top level of journalism instead of working with the grassroots. Derek suggested that if Facebook wants to eliminate hate speech they need to be dealing with local and national newspapers, not international mediums which they're going to pay millions of dollars yearly.
Facebook and other social media platforms need to engage audiences in a meaningful way and acknowledge they are a news organization and abide by standards.
Mr. Derek Bowler who is the founder of the Eurovision Social Newswire also talked about the importance of being open and transparent to audiences as a way of building trust with them. For every article, he said, links to other resources where readers can do their own fact-checking, has to be provided.
The Head of Social Newsgathering at the European Broadcasting Union further suggested that journalists will have to own any false news they may have mistakenly published. Taking responsibility shows courage and transparency, and audiences will be able to trust such journalists the more.
Derek also talked about attaching a name to every news piece so that readers will know who is responsible for any news item. He further commented that when every article out there has a face to it, people will easily be able to identify the bad eggs, ignore them, and follow those who are committed to truth.
Talking about the activities of the European Broadcasting Union, he said they collaborate to exchange news material and come up with the best solutions. He said the union is committed to bringing people the relevant and factual news and eliminating misinformation. They have researchers and fact-checkers working in a collaborative space to discover, verify, and clear content that is emerging on social platforms in real-time. The goal is to encourage collaboration among journalists and news media outlets, instead of unhealthy competition.
For more information, please contact +41 22 717 21 11 or visit https://evnsocialnewswire.ch/.
Contact Info:
Name: Anaïs Propan
Email: Send Email
Organization: Eurovision Social Newswire
Website: https://evnsocialnewswire.ch/
Release ID: 88934260
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