By Crista Quintos
As spotting fake news from real news has become a required skill in journalism nowadays, Google?s News Lab is equipping journalists with free online tools to allow them to navigate today’s tricky online news environment.
Google News Lab recently hosted an event in its Google Philippines office to tackle the rise of technology and the challenges it presents to traditional news organizations and reporters.
The event, with the help of Google?s products and services, also sought to give journalists the ability to recognize ?disinformation? (intentionally false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately) and ?misinformation? (information that is unintentionally false) in today?s highly toxic online news space.
Irene Jay Liu, Google News Lab lead for Asia, started the event by discussing the nature of misinformation and disinformation and the methods people may use to spot them.
Liu also spoke about how journalists can effectively negate any misinformation and disinformation that have already been leaked to the public.
?We need to think about how we?re playing the game,? Liu said. ?As much as I love newspapers, that?s not where people are going now. This is no longer how people read their content.?
Liu reiterated that it is important to recognize where people are getting their news. ?News organizations have to really be concerned about this,? she said.
Although the rise of technology has presented the public the chance to deliver user-generated content in ?breaking news? situations, she said it has also allowed people to fabricate content which they send to mainstream news organizations.
Liu said journalists must therefore take extra steps to make sure that the content they are sharing is factual and true.
As a result of the challenges faced by many journalists today, Liu said Google News Lab is providing the tools to help them become effective agents of the news.
During the seminar attended by reporters from different news outlets, Liu presented ways in which journalists can take advantage of free applications from Google to spot fake news.
Notwithstanding the current proliferation of fake news, Liu said field of journalism will still significantly grow and develop in the years to come.