Fake news: “educating the reader is the solution” says Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales

In 2017, during the American elections, the term “fake news” was so prominent that the Collins Dictionary elected these words as “words of the year”. The arrival of Donald Trump on the political scene has seriously undermined trust in journalists. Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, is among those who took seriously the phenomenon of fake news and decided to launch a project of collaborative journalism: WikiTribune.

Interesting is the idea that Wales has about fake news, although that’s not a phrase he likes using, as he states in a recent interview:

“I try to avoid it because the president has muddled the meaning. To Donald Trump fake news is any news he doesn’t like or thinks is biased against him. But there is a phenomenon of true fake news, which isn’t just low-quality clickbait journalism – it’s complete bullshit.”

According to Wales, who is busy launching WikiTribune, community involvement is the best way to fight rampant fake news. The concept is to educate the reader to recognize fake news, go to the source and avoid the spread of bad information.

The biggest problem arises in social media and Facebook in particular.

“Networks and communities of people who aren’t sophisticated news consumers see headlines that excite or alarm them, and they share with friends who share and share again”.

Information is living a deep crisis, but we need to find a way to save it. This is the message of Jimmy Wales. For some, this is a great utopia, but the entrepreneur believes in it and it is certain that we can bring new life to the world of news.

Iscriviti alla Newsletter

Iscriverti alla nostra Newsletter ti darà l’opportunità di ricevere contenuti esclusivi pensati per te, comunicazioni, segnalazioni di eventi e indicazioni su come tornare ad avere un buon rapporto con l’informazione.

NomeIl tuo nome

EmailLa tua email

Iscriviti

Ho letto e accettato la privacy policy