The increasing presence of fake news and disinformation in the media and on various information and communication platforms has also increased the mechanisms and methods for their identification and verification.
Depending on the type of false information, different verification manuals are also used. Professor at the Faculty of Journalism at the University of Pristina, Alban Zeneli, has created a manual of 10 points, based on which such news can be identified.
- BE SYMPTOTIC about all media content, especially sensational news. Fake news aims to gain economic benefit through clicks, discredit or promote public-political personalities, social movements, companies, and incite intolerance between social groups through sensationalism.
- SEE if there are any facts in that news story? Fake news usually has a lot of opinions and almost no facts or distorted facts.
- EVALUATE whether the news item refers to a specific source. News items that do not have direct quotes from sources (statements, documents, etc.) are more likely to be false.
- VERIFY whether the portal or social media page has the address and names of the owners and editors and journalists. In the case of pages, look at the time they were created, usually fake news pages are created on the spot.
- CONSIDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES! Fake news often uses previous facts and places them in new circumstances.
- COMPARE whether you can find the news content on the most serious portals, if you can't find it, DOUBT!
- CONSIDER fake news even if the headline does not fit the text, the photo does not illustrate the event, or the graphic does not provide information related to the content.
- VERIFY if the portal is registered with the Kosovo Business Registration Agency. If it is not, DOUBT!
ARKB link: https://arbk.rks-gov.net / (enter the name of the portal, select "Web portals" and all registered portals will be displayed)
- CHECK if the portal is a member of the Kosovo Press Council. If not, DOUBT.
KSC Link: http://presscouncil-ks.org/members/members/
- Based on the above steps, create a critical judgment about the content read, watched, or listened to.