It’s the big finale!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand we’re back with another post! Our final one, in fact.

Today, I will be reflecting on user generated content or as I will cut it short, UGC. UGC in it’s very simplest is content created by the public. It can be done by ANYONE, ANYWHERE through any platform. Pretty neat right? Buuuuuut, it has some major downfalls in my opinion.

Last week, my team and I had to create a video and we decided to tackle one of the biggest issues this year, COVID-19. Why I say “one of” you may ask? Because the biggest issue of all is the false news that has attached itself to the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s right. There has been an enormous spike in fake news around the virus and it is only causing more panic for everyone.

There have been reports about Cristiano Ronaldo turning his hotels into hospitals, there have been various ‘cures’ for the diseases as well! With social media being so prominent this year, there has been no stopping the fake news from spreading, just like the disease itself.

Our teammates Nicole and Darren played news presenters and gave the audience some tips on how to cure and prevent the virus according to Facebook and Whatsapp. While doing our research, the amount of things that we had found online was scary. After scrolling for about 15 minutes, I had already found 3 fake articles created by Facebook users.

Fake news is very harmful, especially for the situation we are in. The virus has been portrayed to be so much scarier than it is and has caused panic among our society. With fear and panic, it can cause us to do irrational things. One good example, panic buying. People are rushing to hoard groceries in Singapore and for no good reason. The government has assured us time and time again, there will always be enough supplies so we do not have to hoard. But content created by social media users have just agitated the situation. People are posting videos of the crazy situations and spreading it online leading to other people thinking they should start panicking as well.

This leads me to appreciate our traditional news stations. With all the insane articles and posts people have been passing around, it’s good to watch traditional tv where reporters are purely reporting FACTS. Yes, new media has made it very convenient for us to obtain information. We do live in a fast paced society and we’re always on the go which is why watching the news on television can be quite a task but, atleast we can believe that the information is real. Television news is sorted out and fact checked by professionals and are only presented to you to inform you of the truth.

I’m quite positive that if everyone just stopped to watch the news on television and listen to professionals speak on the situation, there would be much less panic than there is right now. An occasional fake article in other times may cause no harm, but for something so serious, I advise everyone to go back to television news and newspapers and get your facts right!