Whilst writing my previous post about the changes in journalism, I began to think about another topic effecting the industry in a big way. Fake news!

I read an article a few days ago about a big scandal surrounding CNN, with three of it’s journalists resigning after an article they published was forced to be retracted due to containing false information. This made me wonder about ‘fake news’ in general. What is it? And why is it becoming such a common thing?

In today’s world, with news and reports being pumped out from every angle at every second, it’s becoming more and more difficult to moderate and fact-check what is being produced.

It seems to be common place these days, to automatically take what we read, hear or view with a grain of salt, almost expecting at least part of it to be false – at least in my cynical mind!

As with many things today, technology can be part of both the cause and the solution to this problem.

From plugins being released to try and decipher fake news, to experiments in automated fact checking taking place, there are many things being done to try and combat this issue.

But are any of these things a match for good old common sense? Perhaps it’s time we start doing our own fact-checking, rather than relying on technology or others?

Some food for thought any way!