Around 60 per cent of the Flemish individuals have doubt if the news that is shown is correct or incorrect, as per the studies on the event of International Factcheck Day, on Saturday, 2 April.
As per the sources, during the survey, the false information that was shared on a per-day basis with the people had a significant impact on them. Approximately 2,000 of the surveyed people aged 12 and over mentioned that they see the news on the internet, and they do not know if it is true or not as they are not sure about it.
Moreover, the wrong information is the spreading of misleading or lying to individuals.
Karen Linten of the MediaWise knowledge centre mentioned during an interview, “This growing distrust of traditional media is fuelled by the internet, among other things, but it also needs to be qualified. Certainly, since Covid-19, some people feel that their opinions are not being heard in the media, which increases their suspicion.”
Linten mentioned, similarly, the majority of the people have started to follow the news more often since the beginning of the pandemic as a foothold in uncertain times. “It is hard to say that trust has dropped very much.”
Six in ten participants often doubt the authenticity of the news they see, and a similar percentage of the individuals mentioned that they had believed fake news before.
Individuals have mentioned that Social Media is the source of false stories.
Furthermore, people seem to be worried about the increase in false information through traditional media channels such as television, radio, or newspapers.