Fake news or lazy people?

Recently in Italy, the place where I live, a debate on fake news have arisen.

It is associated to politics: MoVimento 5 Stelle (which, as surveys state, it is the first political italian party) is constantly attacked by politicized media and journalists. These powerful actors craft fake news against the MoVimento while hiding real corruption facts associated to the other parties they are supposed to work for. This, of course, according to the public statement from its leader.

Fake news is not only an Italian problem, during the last election of The President of United States, Facebook had to deal with this problem.
A problem on which even Mark Zuckerberg had expressed his concerning: he admitted that not only the problem exists, but also that Facebook is working hard on find a solution for fake news.

Honestly, I doubt that fake news will be eradicated by Artificial Intelligence in the near future: a lot of problem have to be solved before this could be applied but, how about our Natural Intelligence?

When I read (or see) a news that is of some interest to me, I read it carefully. I always apply some rules of thumb that helps me to debunk a fake news rather quickly.

Check the news on multiple sources

A relevant news is always reported multiple times. If the fact can not be found on other sites or on Google Search, then it is probably a hoax.
In fact Google itself would index a fake news as a hoax, so it is relative easy to find a fake news.

If the news is present in multiple sources, you should take some spare time and read the source you found.

Differences between opinions and facts

Every news contains a fact and some writer opinions.

The fact is what is happened or what exists, whether or not someone write about it.
The opinion, on the other hand, is what the reporter thinks about the fact. It is normal that a fact creates multiple opinions and usually opinions are very different because they depends from people background (its life, its scholarship, its social background, its family, its political party and so on).

To have a clear vision of the news, the reader should recognize the fact inside the opinions bubble and the quickest way to do that is read multiple sources of the news. Once the reader have the great picture of the news, it is easy to recognize the fact from the various opinions.

No one is omniscient

As a experienced IT professional, when I read some IT related news written from non IT journalist I feel somehow frustrated. Usually the news is filled with inaccuracies and, in the worst case, with errors.

The problem is that a fairly complex concept is explained to a person who do not have the basis to understand the topic. This person would write only what it has understand on the matter (which is not the real fact, unfortunately).

If the reader assumes that no reporter is omniscient (if these behaviour is revised in my field of competence, I assume that every news about politics, medicine, engineering, law… have the same flaws), almost every news reported is not accurate.

Again, the only way to get a general and trustworthy news is to read multiple sources and gather a general picture on the topic (if you prefer you could graduate in every topic, but I think the first option is somehow quicker).

Your opinion on real fact

Debunk a fake news is a relative simple task but it requires time and the use of your brain.

If you find a news which contains opinions, do not make it as yours, make your opinion. You should find the news on multiple source and read them; find the fact (not the opinions) and make your opinion on it using your intelligence. This way not only you will know if a news is a fake or not, but you could have a fairly good opinion on it.

The real truth is people tends to be lazy and they prefer that someone thinks for them. It is easier to repeat a news or a motto from a political party then search for news and analyze them.

Seriously, do you really think that fake news spread is due to magic actors that craft news?
Or is it due to people laziness that prefer ignore the facts and become parrots of others opinions?