News organisations join hands to fight fake news

Publishers in the United States are rallying together to fight the proliferation of fake news, by lending support to a campaign to raise awareness of the importance of real news produced by trusted news organisations.

News Media Alliance, a network of 2,000 news organisations in the US, launched the second phase of its campaign last week that calls on the public to support real news by using trusted news sources produced by trained journalists, who adhere to a code of ethics that requires them to report all sides of a story. The campaign also provides links to third-party resources to help readers learn how to identify if a news source is credible.

The campaign is supported by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (Wan-Ifra) and the World Editors Forum.

"The first phase of the campaign set the stage on which to build an ongoing series about what we do as an industry and why it is valuable," News Media Alliance president and chief executive David Chavern was quoted as saying.

"This next phase incorporates other associations and journalism schools to focus on the need for news literacy and will build with new messages being rolled out over the course of the next three months."

The alliance has developed new digital, social and print resources to promote the new campaign.

Said Wan-Ifra CEO Vincent Peyregne: "We used to trade in attention. But today's currency is trust. Trust in discerning media providers is increasingly precious, and newsrooms in trusted media organisations are a crucial counterbalance to the false information online."

The Straits Times has been raising awareness about the importance of real news through articles in these pages, events and conversations.

Together with Wan-Ifra, the paper co-organised a conference in June titled "Keep it Real: Truth and Trust in the Media".

ST invites readers to ask questions about fact-checking through its AskST platform by e-mailing us at AskST@sph.com.sg

The paper's guide to fact-checking is at www.straitstimes.com/singapore/the-st-guide-to-spotting-fake-news

It is working with Asia News Network, an alliance of 23 news media entities it co-founded, to draw attention to the use of real news across Asia.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on October 08, 2017, with the headline News organisations join hands to fight fake news. Subscribe