Today, we live in a connected world where every aspect of society is connected by information in the online network. As we know today, people are connected via online social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc. Barney (2004) explained the social, political and economic activities in a network society are focused on a large quantity of information that has been disseminated, communicated automatically, and instantly via computerised networks globally that diminish the concerns about border, space, distance and time. Everyone, every organisation/institution has opportunity to publish and share information whether it is based on credible/well informed sources or not. Consequently, the possibility of disinformation being shared online on social media are increasing as we are now more connected online in social media in terms of the number of users and the amount of time spent on social media (Iosfidis & Nicoli, 2020). This situation can make us feel overwhelmed with the vast amount of online information and to prevent us from getting fake information or online disinformation, two essential take-home messages for us as an information professional:

• Firstly, we need to be critical in evaluating the credibility of the source of information, and ask questions: Do they have an appropriate level of expertise? What is the reputation of the publisher?. Things we need to be aware of and to be careful of are open editing resources such as Wikipedia, as anyone can contribute and can put in the wrong information Metzger et al (as cited in Shen, 2019, p. 443). Similarly, the global online community often raise concerns and doubt about the trustworthiness of information that has been self-published or shared via social media such as Facebook and Twitter without a review process or evaluation (Kasra et al., as cited in Shen, 2019, p. 442).
• Secondly, the digital and information literacy play an important role as it will assist us to retrieve and analyse online information or images, as Shen (2019) suggested that there is a positive correlation between the people’s ability in evaluating online images and the knowledge/experience in using internet, online platforms, digital photography, and digital graphics. Undoubtedly, education to increase digital media literacy is crucial (p. 458). As a librarian or information professional, we can take part in educating the community in digital literacy and critical thinking skills to equip them to be able to analyse/evaluate information, and spot the fake news on the internet and social media platforms effectively (Johnston, 2018).

 

References

Barney, D. (2004). Network society. In The network society (pp. 1-33). Retrieved from ProQuest Ebook Central.

Iosifidis, P., & Nicoli, N. (2019). The battle to end fake news: A qualitative content analysis of Facebook announcements on how it combats disinformation. International Communication Gazette, 82(1), 60-81. https://doi.org/10.1177/1748048519880729

Johnston, N. (2018). Living in the Post-Truth World: Recent Research and Resources. InCite, 39(3/4), 26–27.

Shen, C., Kasra, M., Pan, W., Bassett, G. A., Malloch, Y., & O’Brien, J. F. (2018). Fake images: The effects of source, intermediary, and digital media literacy on contextual assessment of image credibility online. New Media & Society, 21(2), 438-463. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818799526