Pass It On HOW MISINFORMATION CAN SPREAD ACROSS SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CONSUMER TO FACT CHECK INFORMATION
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he internet is a paradise for information. Anything you could ever want to know can be found through a quick Google search, and TikTok provides everything you didn’t know you needed to know in short, digestible, 60 second videos. Nowadays, the majority of adults use social media apps like TikTok and Instagram to source their news. According to a Pew Research Center study, more than 86% of adults said they get their news from their smartphone, and out of a survey of 108 WAHS students, 34.3% said they get news updates from TikTok. While this makes information easily accessible, it also makes the spread of misinformation all too easy, and without a simple way to control it, it leaves the responsibility to fact check information on the user. TikTok has endless videos that appeal to any kind of audience. There are entire categories dedicated to doctors of TikTok, scientists of TikTok, and people claiming to have authority in any field of study. While this can provide useful information about certain subjects in a way easily understandable and available, it also makes it easier for people to spread misinformation. It is all too easy for anyone with a little confidence and a lab coat
to convince thousands to believe false information. It can be near impossible to tell who is a real doctor and who is not. And the spread doesn’t stop just there. Outside of TikTok, people may share this information with their friends, and them with their friends. This kind of widespread information can even become confirmation. By hearing it from multiple sources, it reinforces its validity. If everyone else has heard it, then it must be true. The issue arises with how to stop the spread of misinformation. Fact checking every video posted would take far too much time, and taking down
some things that we as consumers must do to stop the spread of misinformation. It’s good practice to fact check any information you come across on the internet. Ways to fact check include searching related information to see if whatever you heard is corroborated by other sources. Check to see if the source is reliable; do they have any bias or what sources are they citing? Google Scholar is a great place to find scientific journals and articles related to the subject. There are numerous online resources that allow people to check information and educate themselves about the subject. FactCheck.org is one such source that provides clarification for commonly misunderstood topics and stories. We asked 84 students how PolitiFact is another which tells 50 many hours they spent on you which facts are actual facts and TikTok per day. Heres what which are not. 40 they said. These are great resources to 30 use when researching information, which is important to do before 20 sharing information, whether inperson or online. It’s the ease 10 of hitting repost that allows for misinformation to spread like 0 4-5 0-1 6+ 2-3 wildfire. If you feel strongly enough about an issue to want to share, do your research first. Learn videos has never been entirely successful. Short of taking about the topic and understand what it is you’re talking down every video with the slightest about before you risk sharing false information. suspicion, which has a variety of issues, With great entertainment comes great responsibility, there are bound to be things that 35 We asked 108 slip through the students how reliable 30 cracks. Since we they thought TikTok can’t police the 25 was and this is what content creators, they said. 20 it leaves the 15 responsibility up to those who 10 watch. 5 When we are 0 handed endless information and entertainment, there is a certain responsibility we must take on. It falls to the viewer to fact check the information we and it is ours, as consumers, to learn how to separate the are presented with. Tiktok can help by truth from the lies. discouraging misinformation and taking down what videos they can, but there are
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OPINION OF THE WHIRLWIND EDITORIAL BOARD
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