How fake news is planted in Indian media: False claim presented as ‘fact’ to spread misinformation

Shams Ur Rehman Alavi
3 min readJul 3, 2021

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The headline is false and report itself contradicts it but fake news planted on the basis of wild claim.

Shams Ur Rehman Alavi

How fake news is passed off as ‘fact’ to deceive the reader. This strategy needs to be understood.

This is just to given an example, as it happened a few months ago. This is one of the largest circulated dailies in India. It carries a totally false report about a controversial slogan raised in a public meeting.

The headline clearly says that the slogans were raised. The sub-headline says that this happened in front of a leader. However, once you start reading the report, you realise that the report mentions ‘this could not be confirmed’.

Imagine, an unconfirmed or imaginary thing, is presented as a fact, with bold headlines. Firstly, most of the papers that are usual suspects, give a spin to any report or use an ‘exclamation mark’ in the headline.

The bold headline makes the impact, readers don’t normally realise why the question mark and the exclamation mark are placed in the end. Then, the paper further mentions that ‘they could not even contact the leader’.

It also later reveals that the ‘police officer says no such incident was in his cognizance’. Yet another officer said that he was on the spot, but no such sloganeering was heard.

Then, on what basis this was claimed, reported and the attempt was made to present a false information, as ‘fact’. When a protest was going on, and apparently some people wanted protesters defamed, a false report was published.

How can such blatant falsehoods pass off as ‘journalistic reports’? But it happens, easily, and this has been going on for long. The difference is that generally, the ‘exclamation mark’ or ‘question mark’ are also there, so that if someone objects, they can say, ‘see we were not sure so we raised question mark, didn’t report with finality’.

Some papers and channels play a bit ‘safe’ and use question mark, others do it shamelessly and blatantly. Unfortunately, this has become the standard operation procedure — how stories are planted. Numerous examples, like a claim that a sudden influx or exodus happened in a region.

There will not be any facts, figures, official’s quotes. A little known organisation or shady person’s claim and the headline for TV show promo is ready. In paper, claim goes as headline with ‘!’ or ‘?’

A wild claim or false thing or a suspicious person saying something, this is used to as headline, ‘quoting the person’, though it is false. But message goes. This doesn’t even hit their ‘credibility’, because this is a ‘system in place for years’.

Strange, but the reader is used to it, as this is what he has always read and there is no other second or third option. For example, the other two or three main vernacular papers also do it in a more or less similar way.

The reader instead feels that ‘something must have happened’ and paper has at least, mentioned, because ‘there can’t be smoke without fire’. After all there is still ‘trust in printed word’.

Earlier too false report in the case of JNU had caused outrage and even led to cases and even arrests, innocents went to jail because of such claims that got reported in this fashion.

One paper publishes, other sites too pick it up and something that was non-existent, is shared through FB pages & passed off as ‘news’. Every time it happens. Any other profession where there is no checks-balances, responsibility!

In vernacular journalism, there is a training, youngsters learn from elders, those doing it for ages, and also you have to make ‘headline more sensational’, even if it just means, fuelling rumours or spreading wrong information.

But this has been the practice for ages. It’s tragic for journalism, bad for any society. Especially, when you see some of these papers sell millions of copies every day. A hopeless situation.

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Shams Ur Rehman Alavi
Shams Ur Rehman Alavi

Written by Shams Ur Rehman Alavi

Journalist for over two decades, reporting from Central India.

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