While tech-giants Google and Facebook are working on technological ways to block the sharing of fake news stories, Len Apcar, a professor at LSU’s Manship School of Communication and a former editor at the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, is urging people to learn how to identify the false narratives themselves.
“Facebook is not going to solve our problems. Twitter is not going to solve our problems,” he says. “This is the basic blocking-and-tackling life skill we need now.”
Fake news started as an information war in the Ukraine, but gained more recognition following the 2016 election after a Russian agency was found posting fake stories that were heavily spread on social media sites.
From August 2016 to the presidential election, Facebook engagement on top election stories was measured at 8.7 million, while only at 7.3 million on mainstream media stories.
Such attacks on western democracy, Apcar says, are not new.
“There is no question, long before Google and whatnot there has been an insidious war in our society that has the potential to chip away the fundamental values of western democracy,” Apcar says. “If we ever get to a point where we don’t know what to believe, or whom, then we might decide not to participate or vote at all. That’s a very, very dangerous situation.
“For when there is a vacuum, trouble is not far behind.”
To determine if a story is real, Apcar suggests looking for attributions on quotes, citations for data mentioned, and checking the url (web page address).
“It’s going to have to become second nature to us,” Apcar says.
