Beating fake news starts in the newsroom. Always does.

Three resource persons, all knowledgeable and experienced in mainstream and social media, talked last Thursday, May 11, before the Cebu Citizens-Press Council (CCPC) about the problem of fake news.

Mildred Galarpe, Max Limpag and Anol Mongaya were agreed on one thing: producers of fake news “engage” more with their audience than producers of print and broadcast content do.

Mildred, a media sales executive with experience in online journalism, explained how producers of fake news make money from peddling lies and misinformation. Max, print and digital journalist and technology blogger, talked of failure of mainstream media to react promptly to threat of fake news and other concerns spawned by new media, especially its being unprepared in handling new technology. Anol, print and online opinion columnist who oversees a chat site, suggested the help of academe in educating would-be journalists and media audiences on coping with bogus information.

What’s the plan?

Clearly, there’s a need for community media to sort things out. The problem, massive and knotty as it is, needS to be reviewed, examined in totality and in segments and their link to one another.

For one, journalists need to be told what aspect of high-tech they must learn and hone: how their writing or editing can be re-tooled to fit into the strategy adopted by editorial and technology managers. Telling them “to learn the new tools” won’t be enough. Which tools, for what, under what game plan?

Tom Rosenstiel, writing five years ago, compared regular media to a police force that needs “better technology and better techniques” in fighting crime. But which weapons and how to proceed?

Multi-faceted problem

Fake news misleads and deceives the media consumer. Bad for individual and collective opinion by which decisions in government, business, civic and other sectors are made. Bad also for the industry as it diverts a large chunk of revenue from mainstream media, which can be more independent and effective if it’s financially sound. Bad for democracy that requires informed decisions from its leaders and citizens.

And commercial interest -- and stability and strength of regular media -- is inevitably brought to the table each time there’s talk of the problem of an ill-informed citizenry and unethical conduct related to fake news.

Site of battle

The “battle” Max talked about must begin in the newsroom. Waging that war is what reporters and editors have been doing to produce content for newspapers and broadcast stations, which in most instances also also goes online.

A question regularly asked, in some form or another through in-house record-keeping, is “how we’re doing against the competition.” Which must now come with, “how we’re doing about winning new readers and listeners and keeping old ones,” or, “do they still read and listen to us, are we still relevant in their lives?”

Same war, just tougher

But of course, it’s the same task that newsrooms do. Technology helps a lot but more than learning and sharpening skills in computers and other gadgets, we need to check out individual skills of craft:

Are our journalists better in evaluating news sources, do we know if our facts are complete; do we chase missing or omitted facts; or do we just let crucial questions to hang and wither?

In reporting and editing, do we go beyond notes-taking (“Tomas said, Dino said”), without bothering to find out who’s giving bull? Is fact-checking (and prominently and loudly publishing the lie) now a habit in the newsroom?

Is our content reliable and useful? Is it interesting without resorting to fakery? Do we report it plainly, clearly and factually without boring the audience?

Fakery with fakery

The term “fake news” unfortunately is used to apply to just about anything wrong with a news story or feature. Content may not be totally bogus: maybe exaggerated, half-true or distorted, maybe there’s “selfish-interest” focus (for fear, favor or personal agenda). The thick=faced politico even uses “fake news” to dismiss each story he doesn’t like.

Those in regular media may be doing some aspects of fake news themselves. They may turning out content they condemn in others. With naked falsehood romping out there, journalism, even if less brazen in its faults, shouldn’t follow suit.

When Max Limpag raised the metaphor of bringing knives in a gunfight, he must mean we should do our job much better in our basic craft, with the help of a more adept use of techniques and technology.

He surely didn’t mean we should match their fakery with our own.