TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - In the current age of information revolution, people tend to fulfill their craving for new information through a number of sources such as the traditional television, newspapers, radio up to online news medias and social media that are prone to hoaxes.
However, are you able to differentiate between valid information against hoaxes?
According to Niken Widiastuti, the Director General of Information and Public Communication at the Communication and Informatics Ministry, the following list are widely agreed to be characteristics of internet hoaxes or non-factual information spreading through the net:
1. Provocative Title and Evocative Content
Each and every person surfing on the internet could basically detect whether the information that they receive is a hoax or not. The characteristic of hoaxes in most cases provokes anxiety, hatred, and malignity of the person that is mentally digesting the hoax.
2. Obscure and Untraceable Sources
Hoaxes are either packaged as news articles, viral captioned images, or simply a person’s status - which is easily shared among communities – reciting sources that are not credible or obscure at best and untraceable at worst.
3. Heavily Biased
You will never find hoaxes that are unbiased. Fake news sites are not neutral, remarks a publicly well-known figure, or uses a domain name that resembles an official news media outlet. These hoax spreader sites often use fanaticism towards a certain ideology, religion, and popular public opinion as a vessel to spread hatred.
ASTARI PINASTHIKA SAROSA