Empowering Yourself as a News Consumer: Safeguarding Against Misinformation

Dr. Yogesh Vaishnaw

Assistant Professor

Department of Journalism and Mass Communication

Information is the raw material for news organizations. After adding news values ​​to the information, it is called news as soon as it is published in the newspaper with interesting headlines and attractive photographs. The raw material is packaged in a series of steps like refining, labelling, and packaging as the same way information needs packaging for create news before it is spread or circulated, so news organizations are called industries, just as other industries collect raw material and prepare it according to the market, similarly information is also collected and prepared according to the readers and listeners. After gaining a sizable readership and listenership, news organizations have greater opportunities in the market for branding, paid news, advertising, and promotion. This is a rivalry.

News organizations face pressure to swiftly acquire and integrate new technology to increase audience reach, as new media technologies and equipment are developed annually. News organizations are under pressure to quickly purchase and implement new technologies to boost the reach among audience. financial benefits are required to buy it and the sources of finance are sponsorship, shareholders, advertising, publicity, paid news, and image building.

News is fabricated, but reality is what is written or told; Therefore, only information is original, not news. This is the main reason why news gets separated from reality. For example, in the absence of makeup, touch-ups, and getups, a model is authentic; That is, he is just a human being, but with all this he is a model. The model wants to market her outward looks, but underneath that is a working person who aims to become famous in the glamor field. Advertising, films, journalism, public relations, etc. can employ this paradigm anywhere. As a result, the model is nothing more than an actor portraying promotional content while hiding her emotions. She is a human being, but by denying her identity she turns into a model and pushes a narrative, service, or product.

The aforementioned sources are meant to make readers and listeners aware of the importance of information access. The news has become more detached from reality due to news companies’ economic policies and the battle to get a competitive edge in the market. People used to regard movies and advertisements as fiction, but these days, news has also been transformed into fiction as it is created and served. although box office collections are important in movies, news also matters if it becomes viral. While news stimulates us to create new ideas, advertisements inspire us to purchase goods.

News has always attempted to develop new concepts with facts rather than provide information, which is why there are format differences when the same story appears in several newspapers and news networks. Since news organizations are businesses, they only accept stories after vetting them. In the age of digital media, readers should do their own research to determine what is actually true.