NEWS
William S. Maulsbyl defined news thus:
- News is an accurate, unbiased account of the significant facts of a timely happening that is of interest to the readers of the newspaper that prints the account.
William G. Bleyer defines it like this:
- News is anything timely that interests a number of people; and the best news is that which has the greatest interest for the greatest number.
REAL NEWS...
"Real news" refers to information or reporting that is accurate, factual, and based on verifiable sources. It is produced by reputable journalists or news organizations who adhere to ethical standards of journalism, such as fairness, objectivity, and accountability. Real news contrasts with misinformation, disinformation, or fake news, which may be biased, misleading, or false. The goal of real news is to inform the public truthfully and responsibly.
Accordingly, here are some real news..
1) SRI LANKA TOUR OF ENGLAND 3RD TEST ( SL vs ENG 3rd Test)
The Sri Lankan team won the third and final Test cricket match between the touring Sri Lankan team and the England team by 8 wickets.
The Sri Lankan team won the toss of the match first England were invited to bat and they scored 325 runs for the first innings.
Ollie Pope scored 154 runs while bowling and Milan Ratnayake took 3 wickets and Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara and Dhananjaya de Silva took 2 wickets each for the Sri Lankan team.
Accordingly the to Sri Lankan team that came to the field to bat for their first innings scored only 263 runs while Pathum Nissanka and Kamindu Mendis scored 64 runs each and Dhananjaya de Silva scored 69 runs.
The England team who came to bat for the second innings was able to score only 156 runs for their second innings, where Lahiru Kumara took 4 wickets, Vishwa Fernando 3 wickets and Asitha Fernando 2 wickets for the Sri Lankan team.
Chasing a winning target of 219 runs, the Sri Lankan team passed their winning target with the loss of only 2 wickets, and Pathum Nissanka , who batted unbeaten for the Sri Lankan team, scored 127 runs.
The England team managed to win the three- match Test series 2-1.
2) It is decided to close all the schools in the island on September 20.
September 9 - The Education Ministry today announced the closure of all schools on Friday (20) as requested by the Election Commission. The schools will reopen on Monday (23).
The decision was taken following a request from the Election Commission due to the Presidential election to be held on Saturday (21).
The Ministry further said that schools used as polling centres should be handed over to the particular Grama Niladharies after school hours on Thursday (19).
All Zonal Education Directors and principals have been informed to provide necessary tables, chairs and hall facilities for polling station activities.
The Ministry further said that the schools that are used as counting centres will be closed only during the period related to each school as mentioned in the circular.
FAKE NEWS...
It refers to false or misleading information which masquerades as legitimate news.
''A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on''
- Winston Churchill-
There are several kinds of fake news. Such as,
- Misinformation
- Disinformation
- Clickbait
- Propaganda
- Misleading headlines
- Doctored content
- Satire or Parody etc.
Accordingly, here are some fake news..
1) Hadunnetthi got drunk and got hitched on the highway?
Did NEWS 1st publish such news? Here is the truth of the story…
Misleading news is created on social media by adding false information to true events. (Sri Lanka Latest News) With such a false interpretation, a fake news targeting the former Member of Parliament of Jatika Jana Balavega, Mr. Sunil Handunnetty, has spread on social media in recent days. circulated. This is an inquiry made by Fact crescendo website about its authenticity.
Sunil Handunnetthi in a car accident near the Baddegama entrance of the South Lanka Expressway. A Facebook post was circulated indicating that a news has been published on the official Facebooks page of News 1st starting that information about being drunk.
Then they first checked whether this kind of news was posted on Sirasa News 1st's official Facebook page on February 20 that Mr. Sunil Handunnetthi, a member of the National People's Power Executive Committee, had met with a car accident near the Baddegama entrance of the Southern Expressway. But it was not seen that such news was reported there, and it was observed that a different format was used for the above news posts than the one used for social media posts on that page.
Later, the highway police headquarters started investigating this matter.
We made a phone call to 1969, the service number for reporting problems on the expressway, to investigate whether there was an accident on the 20th near the Baddegama entrance of the Southern Expressway.
Accordingly, the highway police headquarters confirmed that a phone call was received about an accident on February 19 near the Baddegama entrance, and a vehicle carrying Mr. Sunil Handunnetthi on the southern highway hit the safety fence while trying to rescue a peacock on the road. It stated that it happened.
After that, the highway traffic control unit that was operating at that time went to the place and observed and carried out the necessary procedure, and the police confirmed that the driver of the vehicle that was being driven at that time, Mr. Sunil Handunnetthi, was not drunk.
When Mr. Sunil Handunnetthi was asked about it, he expressed his opinion as follows.
When we asked Mr. Sunil Handunnetthi about this accident, he said that it is true that the vehicle he was traveling in met with a minor accident near the Baddegama entrance of the Southern Expressway, the facts shown in the social media post above, but the information indicates that he or the driver of the vehicle was drunk at the time. That is false.
The vehicle he was carrying was running on the Southern Expressway, and the accident occurred when the driver tried to save a peacock that suddenly came on the road near the 73 km post, and the vehicle hit the safety fence. It was stated that the highway police who came later made the checks and made the payments related to the incident, and that they also went to the Kurundugaha Junction Police for related matters and that the police conducted the investigations.
Final conclusion,
Our investigation shows, 'Sunil Handunnetthi in a car accident near the Baddegama entrance of the South Lanka Expressway. The news that was published on Sirasa News 1st's official Facebook page is misleading. No such news was posted on that Facebook page.
But last February 19, the vehicle carrying Mr. Sunil Handunnetty had a minor accident when it collided with the safety fence of the highway near the 73 km post of the Southern Expressway. But the highway police headquarters that investigated the accident confirmed that neither the driver of the vehicle nor Mr. Sunil Handunnetty was drunk.
2) A series of fake notes that postal vote result have been released.
Below is an investigation carried out to find out the accuracy of the posts published on social media indicating the results obtained by the candidates in connection with the postal voting that started on September 4, heating up the competition between the presidential candidates.
A note was circulated on social media saying ''Presidential Election 2024 Postal Vote- Situation all over the island as of 01:00 on September 4th''.
Some of the responses give to these notes are as follows.
Also, there were several other Facebook posts that indicated that a few candidates got the highest percentage.
The steps taken to deal with the accuracy are as follows.
Postal voting for the 2024 presidential election began on September 4.
Postal Balloting has started in District Secretariat Offices and Election Commission Offices as well as in Senior Deputy and DIG Offices, Superintendent of police Offices, Police Stations, Special Task Force, Special Police Units and Elite Security Divisions. The ability to do so existed.
But the postal votes marked in this way will note be counted before the presidential election on the 21st of this month.
We asked the Director (Planning) of the Election Commission Mr. Vanna de Silva to confirm this further and he stated that the information is false and that the counting of postal votes will take place on September 21.
He further points out that this is completely false as none of the officials in those polling stations have the ability to known which candidate was voted for.
Looking at these news, it becomes clear what real news and fake news are and what are the differences between them.