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UTV Caught Up In Al Jazeera Fake News. What Other Media Houses Must Learn From

Digital Entrepreneurship Photo taking from https:asia.nikkei.com
DEC 13, 2018 LISTEN
Photo taking from https://asia.nikkei.com

I’ve spent about two years now, reading around almighty FakeNews. It's an interesting field. Unfortunately, I'm still not an expert. Just this month, I shared a video about some youth, thinking they are NABCOns. Someone drew my attention that "Jack, into be NABCO oo".

I didn't even investigate, I just deleted it quickly.

On May 2018, I published this article right here on Modern Ghana.

Read More: Fake News is a powerful political tool. How can parties combat it?

  1. What is Fake News?
  2. Why people create it?
  3. Why does it spread so fast?
  4. How do we detect it?
  5. What are other countries doing about it?

These and a couple of other questions are already answered in the above article. It will interest you to know, that, University of Washinton have a syllabus called "Calling Bullshit". You can find everything about it here

That and many more are also in the above article. I won't go into that again.

I'm heading straight to this Al Jazeera West Africa Facebook Handle.

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Just a few statistics about the handle:

  1. About 49,651 Likes
  2. Their official website (unfortunately, not Al-Jazeera) is https://www.thewestafricanhub.com
  3. A post here can have over 33,000 SHARES to a post. Very sad
  4. Only God knows who is behind it
  5. They have lots of post on the handle, very interesting once.

I'v spend lot of evergy battling their post when it finally hits my wall through sharings.

The latest I challened was:

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You won't believe that post had about 17,000 like 33,000 SHARES and over 10K comments.

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One popular journalist in Kumasi shared it. I commented below it that it's fake (I gave reason). Later I traced my comment under that post but couldn't find both the post and my comment.. Maybe he did the right thing.

I needed to copy my comment and paste in a whatsapp group. The Putin post has finally landed there.

I had to type a complete new post as a reply. Hoping it will be shared enough, so we all can lean lessons from it. It's kind of embarrassing to share a fake news especially if you are a journalist or a student of knowledge. But hey! We are not alone.

People are commenting that UTV should be taking to the slaughter house, or the Manager should resign for sharing fake news. Well, maybe that will cool our temper. But it's definitely not the solution.

Below are some of the comments. Under a post shared by Mr Manaaseh Azure Awuni, my remote mentor. Someone wanted to make an arrangement so I can just say hi to him but unfortunately, "fofie anto attah", That person joined our ancestors last month.

Kind of bad luck! Just like that guy who, despite all the search, managed to sneak in a phone into exams room so he can google things out, only to realize that he has no data. He was just right by my side, cursing his family.

"Awurade nyankop)n. Abusua b3n koraa nie". That was the just ended IDL KNUST Mid-Sem Exams. I was writing Artificial Intelligence paper, struggling to half-fill a 2 liter JAR with water, no calibration, and the only other container I have is 6 liter JAR WHILES he writes something relating to Statistics, I guess.

Check out the comments please, before we lose track of UTV

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Those are what others think. They are a response to a post from Mr Manaaseh Azure Awuni

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Brief Background of Fake News

The word Fake News actually become a hit towards the 2016 election that brought the "almighty" Trump to power. He consistently used it to refer to CNN. So you see, Fake News is a global challenge.

Globally, countries are setting up institutions and systems to tackle it. All that is in the above article.

I will copy paste only the state of Ghana below, from the same above article

Ghana

A debut study by Penplusbytes www.penplusbytes.org on Fake News in Ghana has shown that the Ghanaian media landscape does not have systems, budgets or trained personnel dedicated to combat the menace of Fake News.

Penplusbytes set out to undertake the “Media Perspectives on Fake News in Ghana” study in order to understand the prevalence of the fake news problem whiles assessing the measures in place to combat this phenomenon. The study was based on the use of a structured questionnaire administered to nearly 200 media organizations in Ghana made up of print, online, media convergence and broadcast media spread through the ten (10) regions of Ghana.

  • 5% do not have programmes or columns for educating the public on fake news.
  • (81.7%) did not assign staff to deal with fake news.
  • (92%) were of the view that, putting in place regulations and laws are the best way of dealing with Fake News in Ghana.

Very sad. I can't remember the exact date of that Survery. It's either early this year of last year.

Below is the complete post I shared on whatsapp groups disproving the Putin News and discrediting the Al Jazeera West Africa handle.

It started this way:

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Note: I mistakenly said Trump instead of Putin.

In another group, I was pushed to the wall in same way to prove WHY I said it's false, I'v merged the responses from both groups.

1) Politically, it dosn't add up.

If he even has that mentality he will not say it. Politically, he will loose. That was the same argument our Hon Chairman used to classify the I-can-do-without-Volta-region-Mahama-message as fake. If mahama even has that in mind, he will never say it. Same way, if putin koraa has that in mind, he will never say it cos it will go against him politically.

By politics, I mean.. Russia has special interest to take over Africa from America.

Just few months back, Putin was in South Africa during the BRICS Summit 2018 . He is pushing a nuclear deal with SA that is pending signature.

Russia has already signed nuclear agreements with countries like Rwanda, Zambia and it's about building a large nuclear plant in Egypt.

The purpose of these agreements is for russia to become the leading producer of Energy in the world.

Someone with this mission, why will he say such a terrible thing as in this post:

Now, Aside politics:

There are more real things why such message is fake

2) There is no credible source outside that Facebook Page:

Putin dosn't have much friends in the West or Europe.. This would have being a big propaganda message to the west (USA, EUROPE). It would have bn everywhere online that Russia dosn't like Africans. But no main stream media is picking it up. It's not on CNN, not on NYTIMES, not on fox, not on BBC, not on The Guardian. Not on RT, not on Aljazeera main website, Not on any popular sites in the world.

3) Some of the post on that facebook handle can't come from Aljazeera. They are too professional to post them.

These are some other post on the same facebook page:

a) On 31st Oct 2018:::

"What is happening in Africa ? The Chinese have opened 13 police stations in South Africa ..these people might be here to colonize Africa"..

b) On 18th Oct 2018::

"One hundred thousand (100,000) young men and women recruited under the National Builders Corps (NABCO) yesterday began a new journey, bringing to an end to their long search for jobs.

c) On 16th October 2018:

Donald Trump On Africa.

*You wanna be celebrated in a developed country?

Make a discovery.

In Africa, it's when you die that you'll be celebrated. A big billboard of your picture would be mounted near your home as part of the celebration, especially, if you left cash to be blown away by family.*

d) On 6th October 2018:::

DO YOU THINK AFRICA SHOULD CONTINUE EMBRACING WHITE PEOPLE?

e) On 2nd October 2018:::

Kenyans have been lambasted all over the world when they still received UK's Prince William and his wife as if they were still slaves .Africa must say no to this mental slavery .

They might carry their kings in palanquins but the Uk prince and his wife are not theirs to carry, Said Mugabe

f) On september 30th:::

CHINESE TRAINING [THEIR] OWN SOLDIERS TO TAKE OVER ZAMBIA

g) On Setember 24th:::

A very big thank you to the president of Ghana as Ghanaians applaud Akufo Addo for leading Ghana to join the fastest growing countries

h) On September 21st:::

In the political arena of Ghana and the NPP in power, A certain DCE/MCE is seen commissioning a wooden bridge .

i) On September 20th:::

The Chinese have taken over the Zambian police department as police officers because the Zambian government still owns the Chinese $98Billion which they cannot pay. When will Africa escape slavery ?

j) September 18th:::

Ghana's President Akufo Addo caused a traffic jam when he stopped to urinate on his way to the state house in Malawi

k) September 17th:::

The Ghanaian cedi keeps growing weaker and weaker against the dollar , which means the economy is growing weaker too. Has Bawumia failed Ghanaians and who should we blame ? NPP or NDC

The above posts are below the belt for Aljazeera social handle.

4) One of the tools Washington Univeristy is developing to counter fake news is a simple trick.

It goes like this:

Expose people to lots of fake news, and they will automatically build something called Cognitive Skills within themselves to be able to detect fake news automatically. Looks like that trick works :)

I'v seen and shared so much fake news that I find it easy detecting them just by observation. I'v shared lots of them only to find out months or a year later that I was wrong.

I must admit, some still slips through my fingers.

Most of time, fake news content is drafted around

1) what you already want to hear.

2) what you think the other person is secretly saying about you.

So that inner feeling to confirm your pre-notion of You see, I told you so is triggered instantly when you see such message. And that pushes us to share it.

In short, I said it's fake based on the above reasons.

Now,coming to the content of the message.

Everything in it is true......100%

BUT NOT JUST FOR AFRICANS. That is how human is.

The theory of Kuntu nu hwar3 a , nakyi a na )k) is not just for Africans. It's human nature.

1) That is how Africans are

2) That is now Russians are

3) That is how Europeans are

4) That is how Americans are

5) That is how South African's are

6) That is how I am. That is how you are. That is how everyone is.

-Russians are plenty in Europe working. Europe is where they treat themselves. That is where they enjoy good life. No russian player gets injured and say I'm going back to Russia for BETTER treatment

-The god,Messi will go back to Argentina when he retires

-The beast, fake Ronaldo will go back to Potugal when he retires.

-The witch Ronaldinho is already back in Brazil after having a happy life in Europe.

- the Original Ronaldo is already back in Brazil.

- Pele, Maradona are all back to their home country.

- Lots of indians are currently in America. They all prefer to go back to India when old.

-Nerma will go back when he retires

-So many latinos in America working and enjoying good life, and good health care. But they -prefer to go back when they retire.

No one says Go burry me in a foreign country when I die.

It's just the desire to have a good life that pushes people to move from one zone to another. And we persue it wherever we are likely to find it. It has nothing to do with being African

-- My simple view

Kindly note: It's just some Ad-hoc typing...sorry if there are erros.

On the issue of Fake News:

I don't believe in the slogan Seeing-is-believing anymore.

Every content we recieve has to go through 3 states now

1) See

2) Verify

3) Believe

That second stage, Verification is very very important.

Going forward am sure it will be more worrying than now..

Now there is a technology that can let anyone say anything in video..

All they need is your video.. It can be edited to make you say anything at all.

It's tried and tested. Just that, that technology is not in the hands of ordinary man yet.

Then I shared the following two videos in the groups.

Obama edited video

Fake New of Real People

[This video is very frightening. Even the inventor said "I fear my own invention", he said]

In conclusion.

Every information you receive,

  1. See
  2. Verify
  3. Believe

I've done a practical youtube video tutorial on how to detect fake news right HERE.

Kindly share the video with other information administrators.

Hope you have had a good walk in the part:)

Needless to say, I'm Kaunda

I love the internet.

Anything internet or fake news we can discuss it via 0234809010. I'm always available. Especially to media houses, we can discuss it on air to educate lots of people. You can also subscribe to my youtube channel Digital Entrepreneurship or my Telegram Channel

Kindly lemme know your suggestions, comments, critique, etc at the Comment section. That will really help me write better.

Kaunda Ibn Ahmed
Kaunda Ibn Ahmed

Digital Entrepreneurship TrainingPage: DigitalEntrepreneurship

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