The Australian Football League is urging playing to call out ‘fake news’ in AFL media.
As celebrities in Australia, players of the AFL are under constant media scrutiny for their behavior, attitudes and actions on and off the field. Fake News surrounding their professional careers and their personal lives can bear a heavy toll on a player’s mental health. In the 2017 season Travis Cloke, Tom Boyd and Alex Fasolo all took time out from the game because of mental health struggles, partially attributing the decision to what they had seen on social media.
The AFL Players Association has encouraged players to respectfully combat inaccurate stories by calling out factual errors or what they considered to be unfair reporting. While players were discouraged to contact journalists directly, avenues were given to them to voice their side of the story to internal media outlet.
CEO Gillon McLachlan believes players would be better off staying away from social media all together. Is this a realistic request in the modern digital age?
This is just one of the many examples of real-life consequences that fake news can bring.
-Jake
FlakeOnFake 