‘Fake news’ has been all over the news and the issue is not plaguing the United States alone. According to a report by the World Economic Forum, India ranks second in a list of countries whose media publications are the least trusted by their citizens.

The rampant proliferation and popularity of social media has changed both the way news is generated and consumed, with Facebook at the forefront of this movement.

Fake news can take many forms. It can be biased or completely out of context, discrediting or slanderous, or a plain distortion of facts.

The holy tenets of journalism – attribution and reliability of sources, and objective neutrality – are sorely missing from the Indian news space, where accuracy is often sacrificed at the altar of getting it out there first.

The constant emphasis on ‘breaking’ stories, consequently, has led to a loss of credibility for a swathe of Indian media – a scenario that is as alarming as any since a free and fair press is one of the pillars of a sound democracy.

Man ‘eyeing’ US envoy post says he’s target of fake news https://t.co/u4Tcyyre9e pic.twitter.com/QtaStaBFRL — Times of India (@timesofindia) February 28, 2017



