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It was April Fool’s Day a few days ago; you may have missed it. Nobody would blame you; it is a bit of a throwback. A throwback to a time when we were more trusting, a time when we would believe that pasta grows on trees if we saw it in a grainy black-and-white TV report. That’s what happened on the 1st of April 1957, when a Panorama team hung spaghetti from a tree and broadcast a spoof report about the pasta harvest in Italy. Did we fall for it? You bet.
Clearly, a prank like that wouldn’t fly today. However, we can still get caught out. The truth can seem like a lie, and the lies can be pretty convincing. We live in an era of ‘alternative truth,’ which, in itself, is a fundamentally flawed concept, but people still use the phrase.
Technology has made it much easier to deceive; sometimes, it is hard to know the absolute truth from the ‘alternative truth. Every Friday, we have a pasta delivery, which we call ‘Pasta Night’. It’s a bit of a weekly treat. Last week, to celebrate Pasta Night, I asked AI to create a picture of my cat eating pasta. Two minutes later, I had a totally convincing picture of Harvey enjoying a bowl of penne la pomodoro with a fork and spoon. Yes, the first-ever cat with opposable thumbs.
So, in a world where manipulation is so easy and information is readily available at our fingertips, what can we do? The first thing is to think critically. Even if you are looking at something you agree with, you don’t want to get caught in your own echo chamber. When I encounter positive information that aligns with my own political, social, and ethical ideals, it’s tempting to run with it. Still, I try to be as critical as I would with information I disagree with.
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More importantly, we need to be very careful of our sources. This is the point where I raise a glass to the team that write for this paper and my journalist colleagues at V2 Radio. In a sea of information, we need to go to trusted sources. The job of the journalist is critical in any society; they can hold Government and corporations to account, and have done so. Their job is much more than writing a newspaper report or broadcasting a news bulletin.
We need quality journalism more than ever in 2025. After a day of being bombarded with memes to the point where you feel your phone might explode, it’s reassuring to settle down with a trusted source and sort the wheat from the chaff.
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