Programmes Officer for the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Kweku Krobea Asante has blamed the mainstream media for the increasing proliferation of fake news in the country.
According to him, instead of the media going through rigorous fact-checking exercises before making news publications, they simply pick up news articles and rumours from social media and publish them without going through due process. “And sadly, that is now the order of the day”.
He noted that when people see fake news on social media, they seek to make verification on the traditional media, “but the sad thing is that the mainstream media now picks their news from social media, entrenching the reportage of fake news”.
He made this observation in an interview with Happy 98.9 FM’s Sefa-Danquah on the Epa Hoa Daben political talk show.
To him, if the mainstream media keeps on picking fake news reportage from social media, it will cause so many problems in the country and limit the media’s work.
He advised the media to verify any and every news materials and report they chance upon on social media. “At best, the media must get its correspondents to verify news materials first hand before they also carry such news materials”.
By: Joel Sanco
