Another day, another fake news story, but this one seemingly more of a positive kind, with Woolworths supposedly making promises to return to our UK high street and save 2020. There’s no point rehashing the detail of the joke, which has now been picked up by many publications (some eager to amend their first hot take on the story…). But I did want to look into the breeding ground of fake news such as this and ask who is actually responsible?
The Woolworths ‘news’ was like a snowball, with publications rushing to share the story asap. But honestly, I am surprised by the amount of publications - Metro, Daily Star, Daily Mail, The Sun, and The Mirror to name but a few - who took one look at a tweet growing in popularity (now deleted), and ran with a story without verifying any details. Annoyingly, I can’t link to each initial story, as with digital news, you can seemingly delete or alter it in an instant, which many have done. Maybe it’s a good thing as I’d rather not fuel fake news, even of a seemingly positive kind (I too was a fan of the ole Pick ‘n’ Mix), but do wish I could show the credibility of my sources (and that I had taken a screenshot this morning, like Tom Withertow did. He also rightly points out the publications that didn’t jump on the bandwagon – fair play to youse).
I assume they didn’t verify it, because otherwise they would have at least suspected it was a joke. I had clicked on the website link in the so-called Woolworths Twitter bio to do a basic check, which brought up no website. Highly suspicious for what used to be a high street giant. Surely, they would at least have a landing page? And yet, I saw many people share the news enthusiastically. Was it just a nostalgic moment we wished to revel in? Perhaps.
The point is though, that actually we each have a responsibility to check our sources, because sadly we can’t trust all publications or all journalists to do so anymore. There are many who are credible, but sadly the ones that are not still have a big influence on our society.
We’ve seen it with media frenzy following the release of J.K. Rowling’s Troubled Blood book, where one line in a review was picked up by Pink News and twisted to present the novel as transphobic, which transpired to be false – the book features no content linking to trans people. We've seen it with the content spewed out around Brexit from both sides, presenting itself as fact (oh how many hyperlinks could I include here…). We're seeing it with COVID-19 - how many different takes are there! And with the fake Twitter exchange around what The Good Friday agreement is, with a male Twitter user ‘mansplaining’ it to Siobhán Fenton. Fenton is the author of the appropriately named book The Good Friday agreement, so she didn’t really need it explaining to her to say the least. Her take is an interesting one, as she explained the Twitter exchange was faked to be more dramatic, and she questioned why so many journalists had shared it without first doing a little research to find her original tweet. Fenton’s calling out of the fake tweet certainly positions her in my mind as someone who is more trustworthy because of this (whether or not you share the same politics). That didn’t stop people sharing the ‘fake’ tweet though, despite her explanation.
In the lead up the US election next week, the misinformation being shared is at all-time high. What can we do about that? I think we have a responsibility to think about what we are sharing and liking to understand that once that thought or idea is out there you can’t bring it back. Pandora’s box. We can’t check every fact and figure in an article, but if we feel it is worthy of sharing and increasing its reach, then questioning it on a basic level is needed - the source, the topic, the stats, the research. Thinking critically is so essential.
What’s interesting about the Woolworths story though, is that it was seemingly retracted so quickly. Was this because it doesn’t infringe personal beliefs? (Unless, of course you do feel very strongly about the Pick ‘n’ Mix) Yet, when we see a fake story, fake research, fake anything being shared, it usually seems to sit there basking in glory, because it supports someone’s narrative, which gives it the power to stay. If we see obviously distorted, twisted stats, or news, maybe we should call those sharing out on in. Question the bias even? I don’t mean being righteous about it (don’t be that guy), but more to stop the spread of misinformation, and it is possible to do so kindly. And if it's you being questioned, it needn't be offensive, because surely if your idea/article/whatever it is strong enough it will stand scrutiny, no? And wouldn't scrutiny sharpen it up and actually make it stronger?
It’s important to have freedom of speech, although the saying goes with freedom comes great responsibility, and that responsibility we should not take lightly.
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