The printed newspaper is among the oldest elements in the contemporary media environment. However, with the advent of the Internet, the media industry has revolutionized with regards to how information is portrayed, distributed, and consumed. The first online newspaper was published in 1980, and it has gradually gained popularity over the years1. This has prompted legacy printed news producers, such as the New York Times and the Daily Mail, among others, to create an online presence that complements their offline sales. In the modern era, online news is more popular than printed news, as it is freely available and can be accessed from anywhere.
However, the digitalization of the newspapers has adversely impacted the quality of news, as it has led to the rise of fake news. Fake news has a myriad of definitions; nevertheless, it is referred to as propaganda published to deceive or misinform readers deliberately. Although fake news is as old as the newspaper industry, online versions are more susceptible to fake news than the former due to the type of writing style used.
Online newspapers utilize a non-linear and reader-driven content, as it must be brief and quickly get to the point. Therefore, since people depend on news publishers to bridge the informational gap between them and the world, they must become conversant with ways of identifying fake news. The CRAAP test contains measures such as currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose that are efficient in identifying fake news2.
Reference List
Shedden, D., Today in Media History: CompuServe and the First Online Newspapers. Web.
Yap, A., Snyder, L., and Drye, S., ‘The Information War in the Digital Society: A Conceptual Framework for a Comprehensive Solution to Fake News’, Academy of Social Science Journal, vol. 3, no. 7, 2018, pp. 1214-1221.
Footnotes
- D. Shedden, Today in Media History: CompuServe and the First Online Newspapers. Web.
- A. Yap, L. Snyder, and S. Drye, ‘The Information War in the Digital Society: A Conceptual Framework for a Comprehensive Solution to Fake News’, Academy of Social Science Journal, vol. 3, no. 7, 2018, p. 1216.