According
to some reports, there are approximately over 3 billion online users in the
world. As the number of social media users increase, its relevance to daily
life has become increasingly important. Anything from where are users at any
given time to providing emergency and/or disaster related information can be
shared on these sites. The information is posted easily, quickly and in
real-time. Users can respond, provide alerts and/or feedback just as quickly.
Recently
however, particularly in the area of emergency alerts, the importance of verifying
and fact-checking online posts has now made it to the public sphere. After the
recent tragic attacks in both Paris and Beirut, much has been said about how
social media has or has not assisted in providing credible reports during those critical times.
While it
can be said that through social media, information can be relayed and forwarded
at the speed of light, it is also something to be wary of as well. What sort of
information is forwarded and by whom is just as important as the postings
themselves.
Evaluating
the accuracy of information that is posted should be high on the list,
particularly for government and media agencies. Some items to keep in mind,
while evaluating postings on social media as shared in a report by Johns
Hopkins University:
Location
of the source - are they
in the place they are tweeting or posting about?
Network - who is in their network and who
follows them? Do I know this account?
Content - Can the information be
corroborated from other sources?
Contextual
updates - Do they usually post or tweet on
this topic? If so, what did past or updated posts say? Do they fill in more
details?
Account
age - What is the age of the account in
question? Be wary of recently created accounts.
Reliability - Is the source of information
reliable?
Sources:
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