Circular reporting occurs when false information which seems to be true originates from different sources but in a real sense, it comes from a single source. Fake news destroys the reputation of media houses which are entrusted to deliver real-time information but instead they deliver the dubious news. It can also destroy the reputation of high profile people in government and individuals. There are many cases in court regarding fake news about other people. The most affected are bloggers who try to taint another person's name for own benefit. Media houses should investigate and come up with facts about what they are reporting to increase their credibility instead of jumping to unnecessary conclusions.
Example of circular reporting in Africa is when a high profile individual spread rumors that there is the presence of mercury and copper in imported sugar from Brazil. The media houses printed newspapers and spread the news on the same without finding for facts (Pitsilis and El-Hadedy, 2016) . The whole country believed the same story and blames the government and bodies involved for the same. Latter the standardization body did some tests and confirmed there were no such elements on the sugar. This led to the individual involved in spreading the rumors being questioned by government agencies where he came up with that kind of information.
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In conclusion, circular reporting brings more harm than good. It destroys the trust of consumers on journalists. The best way to overcome these is by first being aware of circular news, you can then seek for evidence or facts of the same and then you can verify the evidence. You can also contact the know the source of information and interview them. Media houses can also deploy an investigative journalist to investigate on the same to bring out the real truth. In essence, nobody would like to hear the fake news. In order to counter fake news, there needs to be a greater level of media literacy.
References
Pitsilis, G. K., & El-Hadedy, M. (2016). Posting with credibility in Micro-blogging systems using Digital Signatures and Watermarks: A case study on Twitter. arXiv preprint arXiv:1612.09480 .
