Countering disinformation

Disinformation, or fake news, and artificial intelligence (AI) are two of the most heard terms in newsrooms across the globe today, as newsmen believe they could pose serious challenges to journalism in the 21st century.

Facing a deluge of information thanks to the proliferation of social media and chat platforms, newsrooms have the cardinal responsibility of busting disinformation and delivering the truth to their readers and viewers.

As many as 17 journalists, including this DH correspondent, from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka travelled to the US in June to interact with experts, professors, and journalists on how newsrooms and institutions there are countering the challenges posed by disinformation and AI.

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The tour, organised by the US Department of State, was executed by Meridian International Centre.

While tools help journalists distinguish between fake and real, be it altered photographs or deep fake videos, most experts put things bluntly.

“Tools come later. The first is human intuition. There is no tool to replace human intuition. The thought that there is something wrong (is the key). Only when the human mind thinks there could be something wrong with this picture or video, will it look for ways and means to confirm its doubt,” said Dr Todd Helmus, Senior Behavioural Scientist, RAND Corporation.

A recognised expert on disinformation and extremism, Dr Helmus stressed the need to create awareness among people that deep fake videos and voice cloning do exist and that they should exercise caution while consuming news.

The experts felt that a vast majority of people tend to believe messages floating around on social media are true, though they understand pictures can sometimes be deceptive.

“Media literacy is the need of the hour. The more people understand that such things are around, the more they will be cautious,” Dr Helmus said.

Those who present news should never compromise on ethics, much like intuition, Dr B William Silcock, a leading innovator in journalism education, said. He was his candid self when he told the delegation that no one should take the audience for granted.

“The audience is way smarter than us. We need to be careful,” Dr Silcock of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University said.

Journalists should find ways to gain the confidence of their readers through effective news management, which includes finding out the newsroom’s typical audience, he added.

“Most importantly, journalists should create an ongoing conversation about their stories... They should start networking globally by establishing credibility and building relationships and trust,” he added, while stressing that credibility, responsibility, objectivity, truthfulness, integrity, kindness, and non-partisanship are the key qualities of a journalist.

The biggest challenge that disinformation poses, the experts said, is that it has the potential to undermine people’s trust in journalism and institutions.

“We always reach out only to people whom we can quote in the fact-check stories. Off-the-record sources are a clear no-go zone for PolitiFact. In fact, each of our fact-check articles has a long list of resources that we relied on or referred to at the end. The audience should trust the fact-check,” Katie Sanders, Managing Editor, PolitiFact, a leading fact-check web portal in the US, said.

PolitiFact is run by the Poynter Institute, known for its path-breaking initiatives to counter disinformation. Working with SM firms like Meta and TikTok and looking for disinformation on other platforms too, PolitiFact’s Truth-o-Meter has six categories to fact-check claims: true, mostly true, half true, mostly false, false, and pants on fire.

News organisations should have dedicated fact-checking teams, and journalists should strive hard to make fact-checking a new form of journalism.

“Fact-checking is a time-consuming process. But the time you put into it is worth it, as it helps gain the audience’s trust. The average time involved in a fact-check article is about one to two days,” Sanders said.

With AI making deep fake videos a reality, the challenges that newsrooms face will only increase, the experts said, and they counselled journalists to stick to the basics before putting the news out.

Dr Silcock gave a different perspective on AI, saying it should be viewed as an opportunity and not as a threat to the newsroom. “We didn’t appreciate the value of the internet enough. But we should embrace AI from the beginning, and we have to leverage it to our benefit. AI can have a role in ethical, responsible, and truthful journalism. But it should not be used to replace human judgement and critical thinking,” he added.