1. A Case Study on Fake 'Malaysia Kini' Website
Clarification News:
Apparently, a webpage called “Art News” had become the mastermind behind creating and running an imposter website of a Malaysia’s well known news agency - Malaysiakini. The page tried to mislead the public by using a similar name which is “Malaysia Kini” with a space in between. If the reader did not click in and solely rely on reading the headlines, they would be carried away by the fake news. Although it is not clear what the real intention of the imposter website is, it will definitely affect or even damage the image of Malaysiakini. Not only so, it might also affect and cause problems to the personnel involved in the fake news.
As a journalist, what I can do to mitigate the spread of this fake news is to first quickly release news, postings or even announcements, clarifying this to the public as this will immediately cut off the loss by preventing the fake webpage from further misleading more people. Other than that, what can be done next is to come up with some ways of teaching the public on how to differentiate the authenticity of a news and news website as this can be a good chance to raise the awareness of fake news among members of the public.
2. Allegations of Attempted Kidnapping by Pirates in Sabah’s Waters
Clarification News:
Malaysian famous actor - Datuk Hazani Ghazali had caused some chaos by posting on social media stating that he was almost kidnapped by pirates in Sabah’s waters. The truth was he was just writing a clickbait caption to share and promote his filming experience on the movie “Paskal”. In this case, the members of the public would be the most affected, as people who fall for it will start to panic and might even cause chaos by spreading this fake news widely.
As a journalist, what can be done to mitigate this fake news spreading is by creating counter news to “remind” the public that reading only news headlines without fully understanding the whole context is very dangerous. So, this can be an act of “killing two birds with one stone”, first is educating the public to not simply fall for clickbait types of headlines, second is to remind others who use the media to be more careful before deciding to write headlines that might mislead the public.
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