HOW DO WE FIGHT FAKE NEWS BY READING?

BY MARUSAHA SIANTURI

SMP N 2 MUARA

Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen,

Ladies and gentlemen, Indonesia and most countries throughout the world are facing a war now.
The war is TO FIGHT FAKE NEWS OR COMMONLY KNOWN AS HOAX. During the last
presidential election for example, Fake news has spiked in Indonesia ahead of elections. Some of
misinformation and disinformation was actually targeting the election process, trying to delegitimize it,
which could be very DANGEROUS. If the election process was disputed, then whoever the winner
was, people might tend not to trust the results and it could cause chaos in this country. This is one of
the example of HOW DANGEROUS THE FAKE NEWS . But I do believe that the three things I’m
going to share with you today can help us to fight against the war together.

The three things are:

1. WHAT IS FAKE NEWS?

2. HOW DOES FAKE NEWS SPREAD?
3. HOW CAN WE FIGHT FAKE NEWS BY READING?

Let’s begin with the first one, knowing what is ‘FAKE NEWS’. Based on Oxford Advanced
Learner’s Dictionary, FAKE means not genuine, appearing to be something is not. Fake news also
known as hoax news is a type of yellow journalism or propaganda that consists of deliberate
disinformation spread via traditional news media or online social media. Fake news is written and
published usually with the intention to mislead public in order to damage an agency, entity, or person.

Second, how does fake news spread? An article in Jakarta Post reported that in Indonesia young
and old citizens share fake news on social media. Result of a research shows that from totally 480
respondents from all cities and district in West Java, around 30 percent of respondents have a high
tendency to share fake news. It was also found that people’s age, education levels, and genders do not
determine their likelihood of sharing fake news. Internet also helps boosting people to share more fake
news. The more an individual spend on internet, the higher the tendency to share fake news will
become. So we need to know that internet becomes the main weapon used to spread the fake news.

The last and the most important thing is how can we fight fake news by reading. I would start
by telling all of us here, WHY WE SHOULD READ BOOKS? WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF
READING? There are many benefits that people can get by reading. But here are the benefits of
reading that can help us fighting fake news.

1. Reading is a way to acquire knowledge.

This is the most obvious and important benefit of reading. Everything you read will fill your
mind with new chunk of information. And the more knowledge you have, the more able you
to tackle FAKE NEWS.
 2. Strengthen Critical and Analytical Skill.
Reading is the most effective way to train your critical thinking. Critical thinking Skill is
essential. We really need this skill to be able to know whether news is real of fake.

These two benefits are really useful for people to be able to fight the fake news. I strongly
believe we can fight fake news together if we have more knowledge; we have critical thinking and
analytical skill. The question now is WHEN IS THE LAST TIME YOU READ BOOK? You can think
about it and answer it by yourselves. But we need to know that we have to do equip ourselves to fight
the fake news. Let’s read. Let’s love reading. Let’s love our next generation, our nations, and our world
by not spreading fake news.

A song for you to end this speech, GOTTA KEEP READING, CAUSE THE BOOK’S
GONNA BE A GOOD WAY, CAUSE THE BOOK’S GONNA BE A GOOD FRIEND, CAUSE
THE BOOK’S GONNA BE A GOOD, GOOD FRIEND TO FIGHT IT....GOTTA KEEP
READING. Thank you.