The Social Media Gullibility Test: Who is Behind the Scenes

Have you heard of the 'Double-Agent President'? What do you think is behind this story?Is the information based on fact? Or not?

Does the term 'fake news' do justice to viral broadcast or stories found on the web, which turns out to be false? Or are there better synonyms to the term that best articulate what we really intend?

Rather than overuse and abuse the term fake news, a news story can be described in the following ways if they turn out not to be true. A false story is not the same as a mistake that is apologised for, retracted and corrected. But a fake news can either be:

• Misinformation 
• Malinformation
• Conspiracy theories
• Propaganda
• Disinformation
• Information disorders
• Bullshit 
• False data

Misinformation: is false information disseminated online by people who don't have a harmful intent. If you share a photo or video without realizing that it's actually an old photo from an unrelated event, e.g. Abuja bomb blast now "innocently" rebroadcasted as  happening in Oshodi by someone who genuinely thought it's happening, is misinformation. You need to be particularly careful of this. As it can create panic or do more harm to others who receive it.

I interviewed Emeka Odibeli, a Digital Trainer and Entreprenuership Consultant on Internet  and Social Media vs Citizen Journalism and how to spot when one is been misinformed: http://ladyechannel.blogspot.com/; https://youtu.be/IgYWrnIepZU.

Disinformation: is false information spread deliberately to deceive. e.g. false news reports around presidential candidates ahead of the 2019. In my interview with Dr. Sunny Ekakite, he analysed the Osun Election to buttress the extent of this impact: https://youtu.be/JDxzLmyxCz0

Malinformation: is sharing of "genuine" information with the intent to cause harm. That includes some types of leaks, harassment and hate speech online. E.g. using genuine comments of a person of a particular tribe then using that to describes all members of that tribe with intent to malign an entire tribe to others. Many of Nnamdi Kalu's hate speech targeted at certain groups to promote false political rhetorics falls in this category. If you get emails from persons you know or those you subscribe to but then they share false information with the intent to cause harm, although the emails are from genuine 

Rex Okiche, Station Head, Bridge Radio 98.7 FM Asaba, a commercial radio station, explained that having funding from Nigeria Broadcasting Commission can support more investigative journalism in music-focused stations. But he also goes on to highlight why this is a feasible form of collaboration: https://youtu.be/5vXvtwdhCLQ

Information Disorders: are rumors about science and health that are circulating on closed-messaging apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. 

Working behind the scenes are digital experts who can influence the content you read, the stories you see and how often you get to be exposed to them. They go by different names depending on their roles, functions or intent:

• Customer acquisition and retention expert
• SEO manager
• SEM manager
• Porject manager
• E-commerce manager
• Social network manager
• Online media buyer
• Webmaster
• Quality Assurance and tester
• Graphics and media developer
• Online content writer and curator
• User experience specialist
• Data analyst

You are in good company to take a course to master these digital skills and learn how each works so you can counter or spot a 'fake news' when it is been thrown at you. Besides, each skill when learnt is a great source of income to pursue your passion or set up a career path for yourself.