Sifting through the noise

Behave Yourself

We all know fake news is a pervasive, global problem, especially when it comes to sensitive situations like the current pandemic or elections. Eric Mugendi from PesaCheck speaks to us about his work tracking and combating misinformation across Africa. He speaks about the need to build a culture of fact-checking through the act and art of questioning all media. He reminds us that people need a discerning eye to unpack how and when media content is divorced from its context. Both Busara and PesaCheck implement behavioral science techniques, such as salient visual cues, to help media consumers alleviate the mental guess work of what may or may not be fake news.