The Role Genuine News Sites Play in Keeping Readers Informed – And When To Be Wary of the Web

One of the good and bad things about the growth of the internet has been the opening up of independent news.  In days of old, the press were the press, the costs of setting up a new national publication were restrictive to new entrants and press bias, whether perceived or genuine, could in theory be used to control the flow of information.

These days, a news site can be run by anyone with the ability to code a website – which means that to a certain extent, anyone can publish anything online and it doesn’t have to be true provided it doesn’t defame anyone.  While this means that readers are required to be more cautious as to the reputation of the site, and who is writing on it, it does also mean that news which isn’t of interest to the mainstream media can now be accessed by anyone via a web browser, and Google News and Apple News gives the reader an opportunity to share news they may not see covered in the hard copy press.    Generally sites which are part of these networks are respected and trustworthy sources of information, but reading from a wide variety of sources, and fact checking where necessary, should give a balanced view.

Online news is good where you are searching for news in a particular niche, for example, high quality pensions news ( such as ICAEW about pension experts) can be accessed on specialist news sites and written by true experts in their field, but if you can’t see who wrote the piece, or if it is written by an author or business with no expertise in their field, by all means read, but double check any information.   Moreover, genuine news sites should have a named publisher behind them (our company is Need to See IT Publishing).

If you find there isn’t one, and want to keep browsing obscure news over the internet, it’s worth protecting yourself with a VPN.

Guidelines for using VPNs

Let’s be honest, if your source of News is Google News or Apple News, or a mainstream news site such as Sky News or even Al Jazeera, you are probably safe – but anyone can pretend to be anyone, and hackers can easily and convincingly replicate a news site by stealing graphics and ‘look and feel’.  A VPN offers a good layer of protection to keep your identity safe – and the network itself won’t be able to see what you are looking at online.  During the Ukraine conflict, Ukrainians have been urged to use one and some VPN providers even gave free access to journalists in Ukraine.  Many news sites will ask you to create a login, but if you don’t trust fully the site, don’t sign up.  Your data matters.

Keeping safe online

Every VPN provides a complete A to Z guide for logging in. There are free as well as paid VPNs available in the market, but you do get what you pay for and therefore make sure your chosen provider offers the security you need. 

However, there are other ways to keep safe online too.  Another security tip is, if you receive an unexpected email from a news site, or even more worrying, your bank, or Paypal, rather than click on a link within the email, copy and paste the link into your browser instead and see where it is pointed to.  If it says it is, say, www.newsfromwales.co.uk, but actually points to 12newsfromwales.co.uk chances are it isn’t a genuine email – and any data you put in won’t be secure.  It’s also worth avoiding sites that don’t come up with https:// at the start,

Bottom line, a VPN is a useful tool for online protection, but only part of the battle. We need to wise up to protect ourselves.