Fake news on fire
Just as to everybody's shock, almost all media reporters flocked to MetroAyala department store Friday night when a fire broke out. It was said to have started at the third floor where the toy department was located. That didn't matter as of the moment, they all wanted to deliver the news straight and fresh. Everybody did not sleep, like those who responded to the fire. The whole night they waited and gave updates both online and to their respective media outlets just to give their patrons the right information.
However, on the side were people who bravely copied and pasted the information posted by the reporters and re-posted it on their pages, claiming the news as theirs. They sounded like they were also on the scene, took pictures like it was theirs and stirred the opinion of the public. Well, maybe just the opinion of their followers. Despite them only having a confined audience the sharing of their news brought it to a wider audience. It was heartbreaking to note that the effort of those who sacrificed their night and day just to cover a huge fire went to waste with a couple of clicks.
While we are all thankful that everybody was safe during the fire last Friday and that it has finally been declared fire out, we should not allow these people who are spreading false information on the internet and posing as members of the media. There might come a time when the truth becomes very distorted with the presence of these people. We need to take action to stop people who spread fake news.
However, there is a caveat since they also have their freedom of expression and speech. Yet what they are doing is giving more harm than good which may probably lead the public's thinking into a decline. We cannot have a generation that will believe in anything others say without having proper sources and attribution. Just because there a lot of likes on a post does not automatically mean that they are legitimate and accurate. People like us who work for the media need justice for the hard work that we are doing.
I don't know when another big fire will break out (hopefully not) or a big event will happen in Cebu. For sure members of the media will be there to cover it again with the right and precise information.As usual, there will be people again who will try to steal the information and make it their own. I hope there will be officials who will take notice of this and make them face sanctions. Life of a journalist is no joke. There are risks that you have to go through because you love your job. It entails sacrifice and, of course, hard work. Here's a salute to all the journalists and the firemen who were brave enough to be heroes in putting out the fire over the weekend.