I have recently talked to a Chinese friend of mine who started talking about how smart Trump is etc. She previously only gained her knowledge through the Chinese media and not the “western propaganda”, so it was her first exposure to the non-CCP-controlled stuff. I told her “you sound like you read FOX news”. She replied with “hahah yes, how did you know?”

This made me realize that she is very prone to getting manipulated and not doing any fact-checking. However, this situation made me reflect on my own news-sourcing skills.

How do you deal with the issue and what can I do step-by-step to verify the news that I read myself and at the same time a way that I can recommend to my Chinese friend so that she doesn’t fall for the most obvious tricks so easily?

  • Kissaki@feddit.orgEnglish
    2·
    16 hours ago
    • Who is publishing it? How trustworthy are they? What’s their track record? What’s their funding and goals?
    • What’s the source? Can I verify the source? Do I need to or to what degree does it fit other information I sighted or assessed previously?
    • Who is supporting the information? Experts of the field? Of long investment? Or far-fetched or arbitrary people that may not have any expertise, may not have fundamentally verified their own information and biases, or are not trustworthy for other reasons?
    • How recent is the information? Is there even legitimacy or urgency in giving it attention right now? Is there on-site documentation? Official analysis reports or scientific studies? Of what quality, by whom, with what on-site expertise?

    Something like that.

    For stuff I’m not sure of or unknowing I often check Wikipedia, which links further sources, or actually check court rulings, or laws, or state published information, etc. Having watched many documentaries and having read articles gives some assessment basis for various related topics. Watching or reading from independent invested journalists, especially when they go/went on-site, gives (reasonably) verifiable legitimacy.

    As for your friend, it also depends on how much you are willing to invest. Nudging with questions like “don’t you feel it’s suspiciously positive?” or dropping some information like “he was bankrupt multiple times, why is he celebrated as saving the economy? doesn’t that seem off?”

    If they’re open to other sources and information, it’ll be easy. More likely, they are not, which will make it harder and a longer process if you’re willing to invest. Factual information often doesn’t help. Making them question stuff themselves would be the best way then.