Prof (Dr) Shilpi Jha is a trained Google fact-checker and over the last five years has conducted 40 plus fact-checking workshops for journalists and academicians. Prof Jha began her career as a Business Correspondent with Aaj Tak in 2000 before moving on to the US where she worked as International Broadcaster for Voice of America. After her return to India, she switched to academia. She taught at several universities as Visiting Faculty before joining G. D. Goenka University in Gurgaon as Associate Professor. In 2019, she moved to Bennett University’s Times School of Media and in 2022 became a full Professor. In an interview to Easy Media, Dr Jha shares her concern at the rapid proliferation of fake news and the lack of preparedness in Indian newsrooms to tackle it. She also advocates the need to teach media literacy. Excerpts from the interview:
Q. What are the best fact checking tools?
A. Some of the most commonly used fact-checking tools are reverse image search using search engines like Google, Yandex, Bing or Naver; InVid for video verification; Mapping tools like Google maps, Google Earth, Mapilary, Bing maps for Geo location; Google translate, Wayback machine, Fotoforencis etc. These tools change and or get updated very quickly so it is very important for fact-checkers to keep an eye on new tools and upgrade their skills. Poynters Institute and Google News Initiative are two good online resources for fact-checkers.
Q. Describe the methodology you use to build fact-checking skills of journalists and academics?
A. We put a lot of emphasis on developing critical thinking and inculcating basic media literacy among journalists while designing the curriculum. While tools are very important to carry out the exercise of fact-checking, it is equally important to understand that it is practically impossible for any organization to fact-check every bit of mis or dis-information which comes their way. Also, fact-checking needs time and patience while news organizations are always chasing deadlines. If only we exercise critical thinking, a lot of information can be scanned and dismissed with sheer observation and basic journalistic practices like lateral reading, source verification and the ability to differentiate between news and opinion.
Q. Has fake news become more difficult to track in the last five years? What are the main challenges you visualize in dealing with fake news?
A. As a matter of fact, it has. Deep fakes are becoming more and more common today and their creators have come up with ways that circumvent most of the fact checking tools. This makes the inculcation of critical thinking and media literacy tenets among gate keepers even more important.
Q. How well are Indian newsrooms prepared to deal with fake news? What should they do to become better in dealing with fake news?
A. It is unfortunate that in the race between accuracy and speed, most newsrooms end up choosing the latter. For example, recently several mainstream media organizations fell prey to the disinformation shared about Nobel laurate Amartya Sen’s death. The information was first shared by a X (formerly Twitter) handle by the name of Caludia Goldin who has recently been conferred Nobel prize in Economics. In no time most news organizations flashed the news without verifying the authenticity of the handle or cross checking the news with an authentic source. As it turned out that the handle was fake, and soon Sen’s daughter Nandana Sen shared the update of him being in good health. It is thus very important for newsrooms to follow old school journalism rules of identifying their sources and cross-checking any update before publishing. Technology can only help when there is basic media literacy and awareness amongst the gatekeepers.
Q. How do you see AI affecting the spread of fake news? How well is the world prepared to deal with it?
A. AI is increasingly making it difficult to differentiate between original and manipulated content. It also creates fake images or videos at a much faster pace than the traditional tools like Photoshop. Thus, the threat and impact of fake news is only increasing. It is very difficult to comment on the preparedness of different geographies in combating fake news since several factors are responsible for it. Social media platforms, which are the biggest vehicle of propagating disinformation are either completely shrugging off their responsibilities or have adopted a non-serious approach towards it. Here law of the land becomes very important. Platforms act more seriously in European Union because of their strict regulations while in global south they adopt a casual attitude. The onus therefore is not only on mainstream media or fact-checkers but also on governments to take stock and act quickly.
Q. What makes a topic fertile for spread of dis-information?
A. Any major event or development of national or international importance is a fertile ground for miscreants to spread disinformation. For example, these days we see a lot of misinformation about Israel- Hamas war related to atrocities by both parties which are hardening stereotypes and individual biases. We can expect loads of fake news about parties, policies and candidates being shared during the upcoming assembly elections. Disinformation related to health soared during the pandemic and still constitutes a major chunk of fake news in circulation. Financial disinformation is another area of concern.
Q. Which audiences are more likely to believe a fake news story?
A. The ones who lack the ability to think critically are most likely to believe fake news. There are several reasons like personal biases, stereotypes, blind faith in community leaders and the urge to follow the road most taken which makes one succumb to fake news. Thus, the need to teach basic media literacy to audiences is more important now than ever.
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