5 Tips For Sharing News Responsibly on Social Media

Admin Mon 18 Feb 2019, 9:18 pm

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5 Tips For Sharing News Responsibly on Social Media
BY PESACH BENSON FEBRUARY 17, 2019
sharing news responsibly
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Whenever there’s a flurry of breaking news, we all want to be informed, and inform others. Sorting through the online information overload is hard enough; what’s our own responsibility for what we choose to put on our social media feeds? How can we be sure the news we share doesn’t unwittingly spread misinformation? Shouldn’t we be sharing news responsibly?

Here are five tips to help:
1. How do I know this?
For you post anything, stop and ask yourself, “How do I (or the person whose post I’m sharing) know that this is true?” Don’t assume anything.

The next tip elaborates fleshes this out in more detail.

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2. Sourcing
Is the source of the news story, tweet or post identified? Can you judge for yourself if it’s reliable? Is the ultimate source a first-hand eyewitness? Is he quoting an eyewitness, a government official, or another news report?

If you’re dealing with anonymous sources, has the reporter credibly explained why they need to remain nameless? Do you know how to judge anonymous sources?

Related reading: News Literacy: The 7 News Habits You Need to Develop

3. Images
Be wary of images that aren’t credited. We’ve seen recycled images passed off as current, images lacking context, and more. So if you share a photo, be careful about the conclusions you draw from it. And include some info about where you saw it and why you trust it enough to post. Transparency is part of sharing news responsibly.

4. Be transparent
Transparency makes it easier for all of us to digest and judge your contribution to the conversation. This isn’t limited to images. If something you share turns out to be bogus, transparency can help people track down the source and perhaps protect your credibility from getting burnt. If you demand media transparency, then hold yourself to the same standard.

5. When in doubt, leave it out
There’s no need to rush headfirst into posting anything. Take a breath and think it all through. If you have a doubt about the sources or the information, or if the conclusions aren’t borne out by the facts, either rethink what you wanted to say, or don’t say anything.

* * *

We all benefit from keeping fake news and misinformation out of the public conversation. Social media is where so much of that conversation happens, and our ability to post, share and like content makes us all editors now. Healthy public discourse demands sharing news responsibly.

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Pesach Benson
A Baltimore native, Pesach is HonestReporting’s deputy managing editor. Since joining the staff in 2001, he edited the Israel Daily News Stream and authored the e-book, Red Lines: HonestReporting’s 8 Categories of Media Bias. Before moving to Israel in 1995, he worked as a reporter for the Baltimore Jewish Times. Pesach has a B.A. in political science from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, where he was executive editor of the campus newspaper.