Fact-Check Like a Rotarian

Fact-Check Like a Rotarian
by Rachel Hubbard

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the Rotary Four-Way Test. Specifically the phrase “Is it the truth?” has been something I’ve been pondering. It’s something many of us struggle with these days. With the rise of artificial intelligence, information we see people we trust post on social media and a fractured information environment that looks a lot like a choose your own adventure novel.

In the last several months, I’ve been asked to speak several times about the concept of media literacy. Specifically, media literacy is defined as the ability to critically analyze stories presented in the mass media and determine their accuracy or credibility.

Once this task was solely the role of journalists, but in today’s environment, we must all have sharp minds and be media literate. Tricky information with partial truths abounds, and it can affect all of us.

For example, in February, a website out of Topeka posted an article over a weekend saying there would be 600 layoffs at Tinker Air Force Base the following Monday. By the time Monday rolled around, I saw dozens of city and state officials and other opinion leaders around the Oklahoma City area reposting this information.

Because of my background as a journalist, I was immediately skeptical. I wondered how a guy in Kansas got the information every journalist in Oklahoma City had been trying to confirm for days. When I read further, I saw he had used a single anonymous source. This was the first red flag.

The second red flag was that he identified himself not as a journalist but as an influencer or someone who makes a living by getting people to click on his content. The third red flag was that the web site he publishes does not indicate that it follows any recognizable journalism ethics or standards.

Because leaders in our community had reposted this article, they lent credibility to something that simply was not true. Weeks later, the imminent layoffs he predicted have still not happened. However, a bit of trust has been lost. I’ve talked to several officials in the Midwest City area. They hosted a number of community meetings and had dozens of other individual conversations, and people were convinced this guy from Topeka was telling the truth, and they were lying.

With repeated exposure to this kind of sketchy information, our civic infrastructure starts to break down. We stop believing the people we know. So, if you get the chance, take a media literacy course. Look to see what the journalism and ethical standards are for the information you consume.

And most of all, share that information wisely.