By: Lynette Owens<\/p>\n
In today\u2019s world of fake news and cyber propaganda, it can be difficult for many of us to know what\u2019s real and what\u2019s there to mislead us. Our kids are arguably even more exposed to potentially damaging messages given they\u2019re living more and more of their lives online. Where once their belief systems came from parents, grandparents and teachers, today they\u2019re increasingly influenced by the forces of popular culture, social media and online advertising.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why at Trend Micro we strongly support media literacy education, which helps us analyze, evaluate and understand the messages we\u2019re being fed. We\u2019ve been working hard over the past decade to help parents and children become critical thinkers of and active participants in their online safety and responsibilities, and this includes building a healthier relationship with media online.<\/p>\n
To that end, we are proud to celebrate Media Literacy Week<\/a> this week. This offers a great opportunity for everyone to become aware of and practice thinking critically, as well as asking the right questions about what they see online.<\/p>\n Fake news and how we deal with it is one of the biggest challenges of modern times. If left unchecked, it has the potential to seriously harm our society, as well as undermine our democratic institutions and our way of life. That\u2019s why we\u2019re committed to shining an unwavering light on the problem, improving education and awareness so we\u2019re all better prepared to spot opinion manipulation.<\/p>\n Last year we released a groundbreaking report, The Fake News Machine<\/a><\/em>, revealing that the widespread business of fake news is around the world. Some campaigns are driven out of financial greed, making ad revenue from user clicks on outrageous stories, while many more are intended to sway our political views. Some services provided in the cybercriminal underground offer to manipulate elections and referendums from as little as $400,000, as well as instigate street protests ($200,000), discredit journalists ($55,000), and even create fake celebrities with hundreds of thousands of social media followers ($2,600).<\/p>\n It\u2019s clearly vital that we address the problem head on, which means helping our kids read and understand media more critically. That\u2019s part of the reason why our popular What\u2019s Your Story?<\/a><\/em> student competition this past year focused on one question: \u201cHow do you know if what you see online is real or fake?”<\/p>\nFake news-as-a-service<\/strong><\/h4>\n
What questions should we ask?<\/strong><\/h4>\n