This week the True False Cell is answering questions posed by third grade students about the way it works.
How do you verify information?
“How do you know if a piece of information is true or false? What are your methods of finding out?” request Gaia. “What are the different steps to verify the authenticity of information?” asks Sarah.
There is no turnkey method to verify information. Unless they have a perfect mastery of the subject and have already worked on it, the journalists of the Cellule Vrai du Faux do not know in advance whether a statement that challenges them is true or false. And even when they have mastered the subject, they check the information, make sure it hasn’t changed. Most of the time, when they have doubts about a statement, a video, or an image on a social network, they discuss it among themselves, with journalists specializing in the fields concerned and in editorial conferences – the daily meetings during which the heads of department of franceinfo discuss the subjects which will be dealt with. Then begins the work of verification, sometimes with several: calls to specialists, reading of official sources and everything that has been written on the subject, calls to correspondents abroad if the information has an international dimension. The sources are multiplied and cross-checked. Journalists from the True and False Cell are also interested in the context in which a statement was made or an image posted. Indeed, if statements can be false as such, it is also sometimes the way in which they are used, out of context which makes them false. The same is true for certain images or videos that are sometimes reused in a context different from the original one. Journalists then use reverse image search tools to see if these images have been published in another context in the past.
How to approach what is circulating on social networks?
“How can you trust someone who is not certified and who gives information?“Gaia continues.
It is not in itself because an account on a social network is certified that everything that is going to be said about that account is true. Anyone can make a mistake or be led to relay false information unintentionally. For example, it has happened to certain political figures to relay what they believed to be facts, when in reality it was humor taken at face value. Whatever is circulating on social networks and the origin of the information, the good reflex is therefore to take the time to think, including when it comes from people that you know. Our brain works in such a way that if a publication comes from people we like, or who we say to ourselves that they think like us, we will have even less the reflex to verify. This is part of what is called cognitive biases. There is therefore always an interest in taking the time to verify, in particular on social networks where everything goes very quickly and which create sounding boards.
How long does it take to verify information? Are they all verifiable?
“How long do you take to know if a piece of information is true or false? Do you ever find yourself unable to tell whether a piece of information is true or false?” ask Alix and Anaïs.
It happens that a statement is not verifiable, for example if someone puts forward figures that are not based on anything, data that no one has ever quantified. In this case we explain it. Sometimes one part of a statement is true and the other is not. As for the verification time, the journalists of the Cell True of the False generally have one day to treat a subject but it happens that it takes much longer.
What happens in the event of an error?
“What happens when certified media unintentionally disseminates false information?” wonders Emy.
When a medium gets it wrong, it is supposed to rectify it as quickly as possible. Either if it is on the radio or television by returning to the subject on the air, or, if it is a newspaper or an online media, by publishing a corrigendum. This is part of the ethical rules and above all contributes to the bond of trust with listeners and readers. At Franceinfo, to further accentuate this verification work, there is an internal agency for the certification of information: journalists who centralize and cross-check certain information before the newspaper presenters give it to the air.