Educating young people is the job of schools and it is important that each generation is better informed than the last. Children need to be prepared for adulthood and learn to make decisions based on what they know and how to judge the likely veracity of new information they receive.
Over the last two years the public could be forgiven for finding it hard to sort the truth from the lies and propaganda. Instead of creating publicity, many PR companies are now responsible for keeping unwelcome disclosures under wraps.
News, gossip and speculation vie for column inches and 'Likes' and sometimes a tweet carries the same weight as a newspaper leader.
We think we know when we are being manipulated but we may be deceiving ourselves. Ofcom's report Adults’ Media Use and Attitudes published in 2022 reveals that older readers can be as gullible and naive as children. They found that:
- There was often a gap between people’s confidence in being able to recognise advertising, identify a scam message or judge the veracity of online content, and their ability to do this when shown examples
- A third of internet users were unaware of the potential for inaccurate or biased information online
- 6% of internet users believed that all the information they find online is truthful
- 30% of internet users don’t know – or don’t think about – whether the information they find is truthful or not
Other reports show that truth and accuracy are not especially important factors when it comes to sharing stories. In some cases, the more bizarre and unlikely, the more popular stories are and the higher they rise up the ratings. As search engines pick them up and promote them more widely, they really do become, 'lies like truth'.