How to ‘ummm actually’ like a professional

Recently I was a bit shocked and appalled by the results of a study, Online Misinformation in Australia. A huge 45% of participants scored NO POINTS in the study’s test. Sometimes getting no points is a good thing, like in the quiz show Pointless, or on your driver’s license. But in this case nil points means a participant demonstrated no ability to verify online information, and that is worrying.

For a few years I worked as a verifier for TV quiz shows. This involved checking the questions and answers for accuracy and suitability. I was paid to say, ‘Ummm…actually’ – though I usually started my most tedious quibbles with the word, ‘Technically….’

You don’t need great general knowledge to work on quiz shows. Verifyers need to:

• Use the internet to check facts
• Think laterally about unexpected ways an answer could be disputed
• Ignore feelings of being annoying and nitpick relentlessly.

Anyway, apparently I can do all three of these things well enough to not get sacked. I’m aware that my aptitude for pedantry doesn’t always translate to my behaviour in real life. I’m biased towards facts that confirm my opinions. I repeat rumours without checking them. I don’t correct people’s spelling or criticize them for not using literally literally. I have terrible attention to detale.

But bearing in mind my many failings, here are some tips for checking information online from an ex-quiz show verifier who is still terrible at trivia nights.

Use the internet

I have very bad general knowledge and am very ignorant. This might seem to be a problem for working on a quiz show but I thought of it as an asset. I knew I didn’t know, so I always checked everything. I had no shame in Googling whether Brazil was in South America (I’ve just checked again, and it is).

In everyday life, we rely on pre-existing knowledge to make judgements. But if you want to be very accurate in public, you should check your knowledge and assumptions. The volume of information we have access to is too great for any person to hold in their mind. Anyway, unless you’re at a pub quiz, it’s okay to use your phone and the internet to find credible sources. It’s not cheating. (What counts as a credible source is a big question that I’m too lazy to answer.)

But don’t Google the answer

If you put the answer you think is correct into Google you will be likely to find information that confirms that answer, and not sources that say something different. If someone tells you the Eiffel Tower weighs 10,000 tonnes, don’t search for ‘Eiffel Tower 10,000 tonnes’ to verify this. Search for ‘Weight Eiffel Tower’.

And don’t rely on AI

Many AI summaries are wrong, weird, irrelevant or all three riding on a unicorn. Unless that’s the vibe you are going for with your opinions, try to find information collated and checked by a human being.

But Wikipedia is fine

There is bias against Wikipedia because anyone can change it, but this is also a strength. Other users will quickly correct inaccurate information on a heavily used Wikipedia page. Wikipedia can be a great starting point to get an overview of a subject and links to other references. Start with Wikipedia. It’s fine.

Context is king

If possible, go directly to the source rather than hearing about it second (at best) hand. This will increase accuracy but also gives important context. This is how I realised that the Big Pineapple is not really that big (though still bigger than the average pineapple).

Even if it’s interesting, it might be wrong

To make entertaining television, the question writers would include as many interesting and surprising facts as possible. My initial reaction was always, ‘Wow. That’s amazing. So cool that’s true.’ I would then override my belief in wonderful things and try to prove them wrong.

It’s not always appropriate to do this in social situations. And you usually shouldn’t whip out your phone and fact check someone in their face. But if someone tells you an astonishing thing, you probably should check if it’s true before you go around telling other people.

If something gets repeated often enough, it can appear to be true by the sheer volume of sources. A quick way to circumnavigate this is to search for the key words of the fact and then add ‘myth’. That way you can quickly find the work of people who have already debunked the amazing tidbit.

Nothing is true, everything is true

It is difficult to write questions with only one correct answer. It is even more difficult to write interesting questions with only one correct answer.

About once a week I would become frustrated with the sheer weight of quibbling and collapse dramatically across my desk declaring, ‘Nothing’s true!’ having been frustrated by a seemingly simple ‘fact’ that turned out to be inaccurate. But my lament could also have been, ‘Too much is true!’ because often questions fell down not because the answer was wrong but because there was another, equally correct answer and that’s not the kind of show we were making.

In real life nuance and complexity are interesting and you don’t have to check everything you see on the internet. Many things are incorrect, partially correct, or a matter of opinion and it doesn’t really matter. But sometimes misinformation is harmful and in those cases you should be ready and able to ‘ummm actually’.