I provided a strategy to help stem a discussion to those in your social media network that need to become more aware “to share with care” on social media. In other words, before sharing content online it is critical that one checks the information is factual and holds credibility.
My mom’s boyfriend has struggled with quickly making assumptions that all articles he comes in contact with online are true, which is definitely not the case. So for the purpose of this extra credit assignment, I wanted to choose him to start this discussion with by showing an example of what can happen when you assume content online and fail to make sure it is true.
As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I showed him the example analyzed in this Case Study from The New York Times regarding Eric Tucker and his “Fake News” tweet that went viral in less than 24 hours. I also made sure to emphasize the fact that Tucker felt he could never cause something at this scale due to his very small activity and following which is similar to the engagement of my mother’s boyfriend.
After letting him read the article and showing him how Tucker’s tweet had even reached Donald Trump, I think it helped put into perspective how important it is for him to start becoming more aware of the current media environment and how the spread of fake news can cause harmful effects at a national level. He proceeded to ask for some strategies he can use to fact check the content he finds and gave him a few resources such as factcheck.org and also explained the process of simply googling the headline to see if other mainstream outlets are reporting on the same events.
I would argue that this conversation was successful in terms of spreading more awareness to “share with care” and what effects we may see caused by fake news if we do not start enforcing these types of strategies. I believe that my mother’s boyfriend now sees these ideas a lot more clearly and will continue to show more care when he now shares content. The conversation also remained civil and did not appear to offend him or his social media activity in any form.
