Conclusion

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CHAPTER 7

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Chapter 7 first discusses important themes emerged throughout this study. The discussions provide elaborations on information flows and patterns, along with news and fact-checking practices in the event of post-Palu disaster fake news. The conclusion first summarizes the whole study. Next, the discussions are triangulated via previous studies, literature reviews, and cross-reference of web observation and interviews conducted for this study. Following suit is the contributions of this study, limitations, and future studies.

7.1 Conclusion

This research investigates the event of fake news after a natural disaster struck a city in Indonesia and to provide insights on the information flow, news, and fact-check practices. The research examines three online news media with different nature and background, the sole third-party fact-checking organization in Indonesia, and a collaborative fact-checking project. Two studies were performed to answer three research questions proposed in this present investigation.

Study 1 was conducted via web observations with the objective to learn about information flow and patterns of approaches taken by stakeholders (i.e., government, news media, third-party fact-checking, and the public). The study finds out that even though natural disaster was the core concept of various fake news, sensitive elements, such as politics and religion were still found in some narratives. As a result, information flow containing controversial items had a more complex flow, because the public became more responsive, the government spent more effort in providing clarification, and third-party fact-checking organizations also had to provide multiple clarifications.

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Surprisingly, news media organizations often were a step behind the government as they waited for the government's clarification before publishing news content.

Study 2 interviewed 12 news and fact-check professionals regarding their practices when dealing with post-Palu disaster fake news. Similar to findings of web observation, most respondents stated that they had to wait for the government's clarification as they were credible to verify the information. Aside from third-party fact-checkers who were limited by their resources, the idea of waiting and reporting based on the government's information is contradictory with personal ideals of Indonesian news professionals who perceived neutrality and impartiality as important aspects.

First, the background of a news media (traditional media affiliated and independent media) directs the way news content should be written, and this includes what the media organizations prioritize and policies created to address certain matters. At an individual level, news professionals show certain journalistic ideals similar to Western ideals or the "watchdog" mindset, such as neutrality, impartiality, and accuracy. These ideals are also considered as necessary when handling fake news, especially when politics and even SARA (ethnicity, religion, race, and intergroup) issues are present. However, routine and organizational level influences may have challenged these ideals, and impede them to fully blossom. Routine practices, for instance, emphasized the need for official sources when writing about disaster fake news. Likewise, editorial policies that tend to be cautious with sensational topics may choose to avoid covering the topics too much.

Interestingly, these influences are most prevalent in traditional affiliated news media. They tend to avoid reporting on those fake news issues due to editorial policy. Independent news media did not minimize coverage on fake news with sensitive elements, but reliance on government still exists to a certain extent, although not as much as traditionally affiliated news media. The role of

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government as a fact-checker influenced the way news professionals handled post-Palu disaster fake news too. Even though some news professionals viewed the role of government as fact-checker needs to be reconsidered, they are still limited not only by their editorial policy that values official statements as a valid source but also Indonesia's fake news ecology that is saturated with the government's involvement.

Therefore, these findings influenced the way fake news during a natural disaster is being approached. When news professionals handled fake news in a manner that has been highly guided by routine and organizational practices that encourage certain reporting styles (e.g., government's information, avoidance of certain topics, etc.), the way journalists handle fake news and act as fact-checkers may be questioned. This is because what is being reported and investigated might not always reflect the reality, and might overlook important aspects of the fake news.

This study also sheds light on the practices of fact-checking in Indonesia, a relatively new concept to society. In recent years, newsrooms have been pushing fact-checking practice and sent their journalists to training in order to enhance their fact-checking skills and keep up with the advancement of fake news design. Similarly, third-party fact-checkers also put in the effort to position themselves in the country's fake news ecology.

By establishing themselves as neutral, impartial, and objective, third-party fact-checkers differentiate themselves from news media through a lack of organizational agenda. The results also demonstrate that the way third-party fact-checkers handled post-Palu disaster fake news was similar to other fake news. However, an important aspect of these findings pointed out that third-party fact-checkers relied on news media as resources, and this discovery suggests that the concept of neutrality for third-party fact-checkers are still somehow dependent on news media's practices.

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Additionally, the emergence of the fact-checking alliance, CekFakta, is an innovative effort that promotes collaboration, instead of competition between newsrooms. There are several advantages that benefit Indonesia's fact-checking ecology (e.g., increased productivity, training, etc.), however issues about newsrooms' agenda and potential dominance of certain newsroom may influence this project.

In conclusion, news media, specifically, traditional affiliated online media tends to be wary of how people would respond to their articles. Therefore, controversial-related fake news might be avoided or may be published when official statements could back them up. As a result,

"fact-checking" and "clarifications" were merely re-reporting what the government had confirmed.

Only when newsrooms considered fake news to be low-risk would newsrooms start to examine the factuality of viral information. On the other hand, third-party fact-checking is an emerging practice that positions itself differently than news media. Nevertheless, by mostly relying on secondary resources, the "independence" of third-party fact-checkers remains questioned. Lastly, collaborative fact-checking brings forth a new form of innovation and reflecting fact-checking culture inside and outside the newsrooms. Simultaneously, the long-term effectiveness of this collaboration is still unknown since concepts such as independence, neutrality or objectivity might be blurred down with the involvement of various newsrooms and a third-party fact-check organization. The collaboration could redefine these concepts and fact-checking practice yet could also be a future challenge.