117 I think good information is essential for a good and healthy democracy. If we’re making choices which affect our country and the world, then they should be based on reality. Right now, it’s too easy to be able to mislead others into believing something that isn’t true, and I think that’s harmful to us all. We understand that when you’re faced with a lot of conflicting claims, you might just switch off. What we offer is a route out of that choice between blind cynicism and blind trust by giving people the information they need to make up their mind and make a choice. It’s important that there’s somewhere people can go for impartial information that’s based on facts and evidence. We have different standards for different kinds of claims. Sometimes it’s as simple as looking up a number on a country’s official statistics website, while other times more in-depth research is necessary. The more complex the claim, the more time we spend on it. We have to be both fast enough to catch people’s interest and maintain our standards of rigour and accuracy. This is tricky to pull off, but when in doubt, we’d rather take longer and be accurate. Look at the poster’s profile. Check whether it’s a known organisation or an individual. Also, there are many URLs that lead to nowhere. Another giveaway is if the language is sensational or very emotional, appealing to what is known as emotional bias – the tendency to believe things more easily if they fit in with our pre-existing world view or opinion. And you might also want to look at the comments. Sometimes other users will point out if a post is fake. But be careful as comments can also contain misinformation. You need to check where it comes from. What do other news sources say about the claim? Is the organisation that originally published the information reliable? Is it being shared by credible media sites? Is there reliable empirical evidence to back it up? Sometimes, what appears to be factual is actually harmless sponsored content or a blogger’s opinion. Other times it might lead you into a conspiracy theory echo chamber that’s hard to get out of. I think it would be great for trust. There’s a bit of a trust epidemic at the moment, with people not trusting governments, organisations, or each other. Trust is an important part of civil society, and everyone needs to work really hard to strengthen it (as well as being careful to preserve what trust we have left). It will be bad for those who knowingly mislead others and transformative for everyone else’s ability to judge what we hear from those in power. Questions: 1 If I’m suspicious about a news item, what kinds of questions should I ask? 2 As fact-checkers, you probably read a lot of nonsense. How do people react to all this misinformation? How do you help them deal with it? 3 Fact-checking is obviously great for politics and journalism, but where else do you think it makes an impact? 4 How can we regain trust in new information? 5 How can I identify a fake post on social media? 6 What does it mean ‘to fact-check something’? How long does it take you, and what are your standards for evidence? 7 Which search engine would you recommend? 8 Who will have to fear negative consequences from fact-checking? 9 Why do you think fact-checking is so important? Which of the fact-checker’s answers do you find most interesting? Why? What two pieces of advice would you give someone who doesn’t know much about dealing with (mis)information? Make notes. Get together with a partner. Have you thought of the same two things? 26 SPEAKING 27a b Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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