Obbana Rajah
Sofia Dendroff, former radio presenter of Power 98FM shared a video on her Facebook page about fake news and its detriments.
This video was even shared on the Media Literacy Council’s Facebook page.
However, the example Sofia cited saw her receiving many amused comments.
She said, “I’ve been a victim of fake news myself. It happened not too long ago. There was this chain message that was going around on whatsapp”.
Then she added,
“I had to forward that chain message to either four people or five groups and money would appear in my bank account in four days. Sure enough, I believed it, but four days later, there was no money. Now I have always learnt to question the source, especially if it sounds fishy or too good to be true”.
Well, while chain messages are rarely true and almost always deceiving, they do not fall under the category of news, fake or otherwise.
Fake news are news or stories intended to misinform or deceive, but they are actually news.