Everyone knows that you can’t trust everything you see on the Internet, right? Here’s an example of a TiK Tok user sharing a “news” clip about the dangers of showering with tap water. The MediaWise presenter shares the steps she takes to figure out if this claim is legitimate or not. What’s the last claim you’ve found in your social media feeds that’s made you question, Is It Legit?

There’s a reason why I subscribe to newspapers and believe in professional journalism. Did you see how many steps she took to chase down this story? That’s why we pay for journalism, so that we don’t have to do all of the legwork to verify every claim we come across our streams. Of course, that doesn’t mean one just trades over their complete and undying trust to a journalist, even a profession journalist (which most of the clowns making claims online ARE NOT!). I know that every news story requires a distillation of facts and information to create an understandable narrative. Reality happens in multiple dimensions all at once and that doesn’t always lend itself to linear storytelling. So one has to acknowledge that everything cannot be conveyed and that there will always be a point-of-view for any story.  Duh. Moving on… 

Source: MediaWise, Is Tap Water Dangerous to Shower in? Is This Legit? https://www.pbs.org/newshour/classroom/2023/04/lesson-plan-how-to-detect-ads-disguised-as-helpful-news-stories-online/