Fake news tagged as main challenge of today’s media

CHALLENGES OF MAINSTREAM AND SOCIAL MEDIA FORUM

LOCAL media personalities also weighed in on the Challenges of Mainstream and Social Media in a forum as part of the celebration of the 25th Cebu Press Freedom Week celebration.

Razel Cuizon, City Hall Association of Reporters in Media (CHARM), cited fake news as the main challenge of media today and the need to educate the public to determine credible sites where one could read real news.

“Mainstream media had been trained in filtering truth. Fake news are done by untrained individuals,” Cuizon said.

However, she said that it is the responsibility of the public to discern whether the news posted on social media is true or not.

Rolando “Dodong” Murallo, Sun.Star Bisdak magazine editor in chief, said that press freedom created fake media.

“When there is so much freedom of the press, dili diay na siya maayu,” Murallo said.

He also emphasized the need to verify information and not just how fast one can upload it on social media.

“The keyword there is how fast not the scope. Something is gi-upload na ang balita bisag wala pa ang basic info and the verification thing,” said Murallo on why a reputable media outlet could receive a few likes while fake news would be shared and liked by many netizens.

Murallo, however, said that he hoped that there would be a collaboration between print, radio, broadcast and social media on fighting fake news.

“(Media should) adhere to the truth, for what is right and righteous,” former Sun.Star copy editor Arthur Abregonde said.