In Chemnitz the wrong messages in the network violence. The events in Saxony, show examples of what can cause lie in the Internet.
For nine years now, Torsten is Kleditzsch now editor-in-chief of the “Free press” in Chemnitz, the largest newspaper in Saxony, but the last days were for the journalists, undoubtedly, the most difficult. After a death at a city festival in Chemnitz rumors about an attempted rape and a second dead in the network are circulating. Kleditzsch and his colleagues desperately try to put this Fake News. And are in the end powerless: “We don’t have to get it in this case, captured. Even good journalistic work has its limits when it comes to correct a story that is already in the world.”
No longer captured by means of The day in Chemnitz to riots by right-wing groups, foreigners attacked police officers with bottles thrown at me. The Federal government condemned the events in Chemnitz, in the strongest possible terms. More demonstrations to follow. And journalists such as Kleditzsch remember that you will lose some users and readers despite – or perhaps because of – because of the observance of all the journalistic Standards of the race with the Fake News. “We have made the classic journalistic work, we have contacted our sources: the police, the investigative authorities, the city, the organizers of the town festival. And we were out there with several colleagues to see with their own eyes what is happening.”
“The correct answer of journalists can only be a good work,” – says Torsten Kleditzsch of the “Free press”
When dealing with Fake News, it is a bit like the story of the hare and the hedgehog. The wrong information has always been there. And the race for some users to already lost. Also, because you can fall as a Journalist, always in the same case – or, better said, must fall: “If you have a rumor with facts, denial, moves automatically also the rumor. And what remains at the end, not the denial, but the rumor,” explains Torsten Kleditzsch an example from communication research.
Fake News mark and delete?
With these theories of the media, scientists, Stephan Weichert knows best. And the Professor for journalism and communication science at the Macromedia University in Hamburg, has a clear opinion: “incorrect information must be marked as Fake News. And this is the task of journalism, just because we have found in dealing with Fake News, still not a real solution.” How this solution might look, is for Weichert clear. “Fake News should not only be identified, but also deleted by platforms such as Facebook. And the User who spread false information, legally be prosecuted.”
Stephan Weichert: “Fake News should be deleted”
The pressure under which journalists are to publish their story as quickly as possible, according to Weichert’t even new: “Exclusive the journalist also wanted to be 30 years ago, so since we have the Live media such as Radio or television.” It is necessary, but still apply the same principle: “Journalistic quality and professional work need time. It is like a craftsman, the flows a bathroom – also needs time, if it’s supposed to be good.” Journalists should not surrender to the Reflex, as quickly as possible information to pass on. Because it will have to develop its own dynamics, with unpredictable consequences and risks: “people may be at risk or the investigation of the authorities will be compromised.”
Accuracy beats speed, and that’s just in the network
The events in Chemnitz are for Weichert a frightening example of what happens when assumptions are liberated and rapidly spread. His advice to journalists is: “accuracy before speed. There are always two sources. And never the pressure of the exclusivity yield.” Journalists should always verify their searches, “that is, questions of how these statements can be true at all?”. Enormously important is the transparency of the own work was: “The journalists have to say, if you have not yet confirmed the information, so the User knows what stage of Research you are,” says Weichert.
The NSU trial in Munich, offered for the Free press in Chemnitz, the great Chance to offer Fake News, the end
Torsten Kleditzsch, the editor-in-chief of the “Free press”, will probably also have to do in the next time all hands full with Fake News to capture. A recipe he has tried it successfully: to research so well, that no one can come up with the idea to shake the truth: “Our Region of Chemnitz and Zwickau, was the most important retreat area for the national socialist underground NSU. And we have been given to us as editors to the task, that no one on this network should be better in the know than we are. With Success!”