Seconds after that high school football team in some remote, low-populous, rural town wins the game, someone has posted the news to Facebook. People who are interested can simply get on their smartphone and look at what their friends are saying. No one needs to be assigned and paid for this work. It’s low-cost, efficient and timely. Great, right?

After a terrible mass shooting, Twitter gets blown up with hashtags as major news networks sift through the posts looking for witnesses for their breaking coverage. Anyone can say anything in hopes for 15 minutes of fame. Therein lies a huge accuracy problem: A big incentive for people to lie.

The American Press Institute studies phenomena like this and many others concerning news and mass information. According to one of their studies, Twitter is plagued by inaccuracy. Specifically, for every one truth, there are three inaccuracies on the app. 

The problem is that people are hungry for information. They want it fast and they want it concise. According to a different study by the API, people said they want to see accuracy above all. Unfortunately, there will never be a perfect guarantee of accurate, unbiased, timely and concise information from any trusted source. As newsrooms shrink and individuals become more empowered to spread information to vast audiences, it is the consumers who need to become responsible for what they believe. Fortunately, there are steps one can take to avoid being ill informed, becoming more aware and having a free mind.

Firstly, people need to slow down when something happens. When news is breaking and it is fresh, it has not gone through an extensive fact checking process and that’s okay. What is not okay is taking unverified details and running with them. After every disaster, the United States becomes submerged in discussions about preventative policy based on tidbits of information that have not yet been settled.

For example, when the Orlando shooting happened mid-June at the Pulse night club, there were reports of a shooter using an AR-15. Days later, the police reported that the shooter used a Sig Sauer MCX .223-calibre rifle, which is mechanically and functionally different than an AR-15. While it may seem trivial, making ill-informed decisions is, almost by definition, unwise. One mechanical misreport is another drop in the rate of confusion of three to one and creates a recipe for loose-cannon democracy. 

Next, consumers need to keep watching for developments before drawing conclusions. Using multiple media platforms, people can catch something they missed. At this point, understanding the dynamics of the news cycle is important. Reporters from 24-hour broadcast news will have access to changes as they surface. After a few days, detailed and triple-checked reports will be written down on print and on the internet. Throughout it all, social media can be an aggregate of every medium as well as provide eyewitness information. Keeping an eye on everything challenges possible misconceptions.

At this stage, it is important that people understand the source. There is a difference between a professional journalist and a citizen journalist. In American society, the citizen journalist is important because they are critical and diligent in putting out information that may be getting overlooked. They are the bloggers and social media posters. They also are niche to interests and are likely not to suffer from credibility damages if they are wrong. If a professional journalist is wrong, his or her career is on the line. Reporting for an agency hinges on one’s own credibility. 

After news has had some time to settle and go through a fact-checking process, it is time to draw conclusions. When people can raise their right hands and bear witness to something being true, it is time to discuss policy. It is important for consumers to remember to not be married to any conclusion. Sometimes, facts come out years after and completely alter a country’s perception of an event. At that point it’s history.