18.06.2020

Beacon Teen Talks with Alexandre Sayad talks about misinformation and fake news

The fourth edition of Beacon Teen Talks had as its central theme infodemia, or the information pandemic, and its consequences. Journalist and educator Alexandre Sayad, director of ZeitGeist, presenter of the Media Mundo program on YouTube, and co-chairman of Unesco’s global alliance for media education (GAPMIL), spoke with Beacon principal Vera Giusti.

The chat was centered on the intense exposure to information, facilitated by digital media, the amount of fake news that circulates on the web and the effects of this phenomenon on today’s society and on the development of the critical sense of young people and adults.

Sayad says that the moment we live in is the peak of “misinformation”. With the advent of the internet, we have more access to information, but we are also exposed to an excess of daily data, which reliability is doubtful. “Our feeling is that we have more access to the news, but we find it difficult to classify it as reliable and also to absorb it, due to the overwhelming volume of data that is published daily. “

He also points out that the fake news phenomenon is only part of the concept of misinformation, which has intensified with the advent of technology. “Unesco emphasizes that fake news is news that was purposely invented to harm someone, a company, a country or an institution. It can be a fake website with harmful bias created simultaneously with an official information source, or a robot that automatically disseminates information to tarnish the reputation of someone or an institution ”, he says.

The misinformation can also come from partially correct or out of context news. As Brazil is going through a hard time, Sayad also emphasizes that this scenario can facilitate the deterioration of messages through the channels they pass through, as in a high tech version of the phone game.

So that people can have extra peace of mind about the type of information they are consuming, the expert gives us some tips on how to evaluate whether the news is in fact reliable. “The good news is that which is very accurate and reported from several perspectives. The job of the press is to look for the sources and the different versions of the facts to compose a close portrait of the real fact. When we share news based on non-plural sources, we realize that we are also agents of misinformation, and this is harmful to society ”, he highlights.

To avoid aggravating this scenario, it is important to have a  well developed critical thinking with the school and with the family. “The development of critical thinking comes from exposure to reliable and plural sources of a fact, and based on the individual analysis of reading, analyzing and criticizing the media. We cannot develop our critical thinking only in the online or offline scenario. “

Sayad outlines five steps to evaluate information and how to handle it: “evaluate the sources; whether the sources complement each other and form a prismatic look on the subject; also evaluate whether it is within the current and appropriate context; check its origin, if it is signed by someone; evaluate if the topic touched you emotionally and again if it is not something you want to believe in – for example, curing an illness; the last point is to evaluate if it will be useful if shared and if it will be helpful to the community ”.

Regarding the influences of the present moment, Sayad says that our behavior must also change regarding information, “The pandemic has changed the way we relate to society and our habits, such as washing our hands more carefully; in the case of fake news, we also have to change habits: create a new reading routine, spend some time checking the information ”, he adds.

You can follow the entire Live video here.