Media rescues trust amid counterfeit storm

Social trust challenged

Fake candy, fake milk, fake functional foods, fake cosmetics, fake medicine, fake intestines... are continuously discovered by authorities, causing a stir in society.

The media is one of the steel shields protecting the truth. (Source: ccn.edu.vn)

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Notably, a series of famous people, influential to the public, even those with academic degrees and who have held relevant professional positions, have also contributed to promoting toxic products by falsely advertising on social networking platforms.

Society cannot help but doubt the transparency of businesses, the objectivity of celebrities, and the integrity of regulatory agencies.

Social trust - an intangible asset that is the foundation of every civilized community - is in crisis.

The public is confused in a state of information chaos: who will they believe, what will they rely on, to choose safe products for their health? And legitimate businesses are caught in the crossfire of truth and falsehood.

Journalism keeps the truth alive

It seems that truth is a scarce commodity, when a series of fake products are exposed, undermining social trust - which is the soft foundation for the sustainable development of a country. It is in this context that the role of the media, especially the mainstream press, becomes more meaningful than ever.

The media is one of the steel shields that protect the truth. It is not only a responsibility, but also a mission. A mission that is both glorious and challenging.

This is an opportunity to reaffirm the value of investigative journalism. We do not just report on events, but also need to trace the source and question the responsibility of the individuals and organizations involved.

People are eagerly awaiting elaborate investigative articles by sharp writers, exposing the production, promotion, consumption and cover-up of counterfeit goods.

At the same time, the media must also pay attention to how they convey information, in order to avoid confusion and anxiety among the public.

Accordingly, it is necessary to increase activities to criticize celebrities and the trend of idolizing influential people, in addition to organizing specialized pages and campaigns to raise public awareness about how to recognize false information and distinguish between exaggerated advertising.

On the part of state management agencies, in addition to taking drastic action, tightening pre-inspection and post-inspection, and promptly improving the legal framework, they also need to strengthen their own communication capacity, through proactively communicating policies, publicizing lists of violating products, periodic quality inspection results, and promptly providing accurate information to the press and the people.

Social media cannot be innocent

In practice, most of the fake, misleading, and unverified product advertising content often appears widely on social networking platforms.

Social platforms have become hypermedia, but instead of optimizing for truth, they operate on the principle of optimizing user interaction.

Currently, content censorship mechanisms are often only applied to violent and pornographic content, and do not strictly control false advertising content, especially with celebrities.

With their new soft power, social media platforms cannot stand aside in the fight against counterfeit and substandard goods. It is necessary to strengthen the mechanism for verifying advertising content, especially for products related to health, food, and cosmetics; as well as a mechanism for users to easily respond and report suspicious and false content.

Platforms must also be jointly responsible before the law if they continuously allow users to spread fake information, exaggerated advertising, and false advertising.

Every public is its own gatekeeper of information.

In order not to lose our way in information in the digital society, the public also needs to equip themselves with resistance to false information, exaggerated advertising, and questionable content. Instead of being panicked, we need to improve our ability to analyze, evaluate, and filter information, not easily believe or share exaggerated flowery words, and not be swept away by the influence of celebrities. Let's become sober and responsible users in the digital space.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/bao-chi-truyen-thong-giai-cuu-niem-tin-giua-con-bao-hang-gia-315239.html