Social Media Misinformation: Stop blaming tech companies and blame CEO's who cut funding for journalists

5 WAYS TO REDUCE THE SPREAD OF MISINFORMATION ON SOCIAL MEDIA

How we can do our part to reduce the spread of social media misinformation during the pandemic 

BY KRIS RUBY, CEO OF RUBY MEDIA GROUP

The Hill recently ran an article about the increasing distrust on social media surrounding fake news and the media continues to talk about how to stop the spread of misinformation online during the global pandemic.

Can we stop blaming the trust (or mistrust) levels of social media on coronavirus? Let’s back up for a second. Distrust in social media has been around long before the pandemic. The notion of “fake news” has also been around for years.

Distrust of social media has not become worse during the coronavirus pandemic.  Distrust is not the issue. The real issue is the broken news system. 

We have a system where people are quoting nurses without properly vetting their credentials.

We have major media outlets running hospital footage that is later retracted and found to be from another hospital in another country.

We have media outlets quoting medical professionals who don't even work at the hospitals they say they work at and media outlets run this as news anyway.

We have newsrooms stretched so thin they have one reporter covering numerous beats, including the medical beat, which should be a specific vertical in itself and once used to be.

Now, we have reporters handling medical AND entertainment. Covering healthcare isn't remotely the same as covering a new Netflix launch. Do you see how deep this problem really is?

Do I blame the newsrooms, reporters, journalists and producers for this? No. The real problem here is at the corporate level of newspapers and broadcast networks when someone made the decision to cut funding for the staffing of producers, bookers, journalists, reporters and on-air talent.

Just like there is a healthcare crisis and the hospital system is broken, the media system is broken and it's time we acknowledge it.

Stop blaming “fake news” or social media platforms. That is irresponsible and lazy and circumvents who is really to blame for this- the executives who cut funding for journalists and reporters specializing in these areas to cover and report the news on these topics.

This is not the fault of Mark Zuckerberg. This is the fault of the CEO who decided he would rather spend funds on a new studio and lighting than invest in journalists. 

If you want to do your part to reduce the spread of misinformation, stop blaming social media companies and start taking responsibility for your role in the demise of traditional media. Every click you make online leads to the further demise of traditional media.

Media will never go back to the pre-COVID-19 era. However, if there is anything we can take away from this crisis, it is that we must invest in fact-checking and traditional ethics of journalism in the same way that we did fifty years ago.

It is okay that digital media will replace traditional media with the rise of social media channels. What is not okay is if we collectively replace a system of journalistic integrity and a deep sense of ethics in reporting with new media channels that are not staffed to support the growth of these platforms.

Here are five solutions to stop the spread of misinformation on social media: 

1. Invest in freelance journalism funds. Consider investing in the freelancer relief fund to support journalists during this time.

2. Ask your local news station to invest in hiring reporters. Yes, this includes hiring seasoned talent with real experience. We cannot on the one hand as a society complain about fake news and on the other expect a recent college graduate to have the same reporting acumen in a global pandemic as a seasoned Baby Boomer with twenty years of reporting experience. 

3. Do your own research. Stop looking for a news “handout.” Yes, I said it. Stop looking to blame someone else and take responsibility for your own consumption of content. The only way to truly find the truth is to discover it yourself. This means doing the hard work, research and investigation. If you don’t like the news that is circulating online, start reporting yourself. 

4. Do not confuse the term fake news with distrust. Edelman cites the example of mistrust on social media around the PPP. The mistrust was around the government and the way the PPP was handled. Citizens used social media as a channel to express this dissident (I know because I was one of them). Mistrusting the government is not remotely the same thing as mistrusting social media platforms. Stop conflating the two. 

5. Fact-check yourself. We live in a world today where whatever is submitted from a PR agency to media outlets runs as is. This means the onus is on the PR firm to practice rigorous honesty and maintain extremely high levels of integrity to make sure that what they are supplying the media includes fact-checked information. It is your responsibility to verify that what you are saying is correct. And, if you don’t have a PR firm? Update your bio. If the media pulls information from your bio with out of date information, you are to blame because YOU are supplying them with false information. Do your part to stop the spread of misinformation by updating the information you disseminate about yourself and your company on your web site and social media channels.

The misinformation pandemic exists because people want to be spoon-fed the truth instead of finding it out for themselves. This is not Mark Zuckerberg's problem. It is your problem. You continue to believe that it is someone’s obligation to give you the news, while you actively invest in activities that essentially kill supporting citizen journalism. 

The distrust that is swirling over social media has become worse during the pandemic and guess what? That’s a good thing. When people start to distrust what they read or see, that means they are waking up. We are a nation that has been asleep for far too long, and people are finally waking up to the truth.  

It is not social media that is distrusted - it is the government that people lack trust in and there are accurate and valid reasons for that. Until we recognize that as the truth, the media will keep spinning a false narrative of a “fake news misinformation” epidemic that is the truest example of fake news there is. 

We now have a glimpse at what big tech giants like Facebook look like with staff cuts for content moderation. What can we learn from this? That robots and AI can not and should not replace real humans to do the job of content moderation. While AI is the future, we still have a long way to go with the amount of things being flagged that are incorrect. While a robot will come for your job in five years, the best thing you can do is level up and invest in training with courses and certifications.

Robots will be great at many tasks, but they will never have the moral compass to make ethical decisions that dictate the key decisions our news system revolves around. Ethics, integrity and a sound moral compass in business and all areas of media will be the great differentiator as we enter into a fragmented media environment post-COVID-19.

The ability to have empathy for partners, employees and vendors is more important now than ever before. That can't be outsourced to a robot, and it certainly can't be blamed on social media. It is not the spread of misinformation that is the problem.

It is the rapid-fire spread of real information that is the true problem and the only way to change that, starts with first changing yourself, so that good news spreads, instead of bad news, which is not fake news, it is most likely the truth.

ABOUT KRIS RUBY 

KRIS RUBY is the CEO of Ruby Media Group, an award-winning social media marketing and public relations agency based in New York. Kris Ruby has more than 12 years of experience in the social media industry. She is a sought-after digital strategist and social media marketing consultant who delivers high-impact personal branding for executives. Over the past decade, Ruby has consulted with small- to large-scale businesses, including Equinox and IHG Hotels. She has led the social media strategy for Fortune 500 companies as well as private medical practices and is a digital media strategist with 10-plus years building successful brands. Ruby creates strategic, creative, measurable targeted campaigns to achieve an organization’s strategic business-growth objectives. Ruby is also a national television commentator and political commentator. She has appeared on national TV programs over 150 times covering big tech bias, politics and social media. She is a trusted media source and frequent on-air commentator on social media, tech trends and crisis communications and frequently speaks on Fox News and other national TV networks as a pundit. She graduated from Boston University’s College of Communication. For more information about Kris Ruby, visit https://www.krisruby.com and https://rubymediagroup.com