Where is the accountability? And even then, should folks be expected to question everything?

Across the Internet’s many, many social media sites can be found numerous counts of highly inaccurate or misleading photos, captions and even multi-page stories about topics ranging from generally irrelevant to most people to front page information from highly credited news outlets.

Due to the ability to post anything and everything and not fact check beforehand, some of these inaccuracies in information presentation are picked up by others believing them and linked to or reposted on other parts of the web (and so on and so forth).

The two most recent of these falsehoods to create a stir were Manti Te’o’s “dead” girlfriend and a claim that went viral that children of Congress members are exempt from paying back student loans.

The Manti Te’o story was picked up by news and sports outlets across the nation, and Te’o even spoke about the incidents with details that, when examined in greater detail, don’t seem to make sense given the recent exposure and statement from Te’o that he didn’t know he was part of an elaborate hoax.

The second information slip up comes from a Facebook post gone viral about student loan repayment. This isn’t the first, nor will it be the last, highly incorrect photo with caption to appear on the foremost social media site. But this is the most current one to grab hundreds of thousands of folks’ attention; just read some of the angry comments.

In the Te’o misinformation event, the blame could be placed on the news media for publishing such a heartfelt story without being certain about all the details. But then, who wants to question a triumph over adversity that captures all those football fans looking for happy thoughts when there had been so many questionable ref calls plaguing the sport?

In the student loan joke, you could blame your average Facebook user for not bothering to check Snopes.com, Factcheck.org or just Google the situation to see how something like that could occur. It was, by the way, debunked before in 2011. But again, why should anyone expect your average Joe to question something the government does when Congress’ approval rating started 2013 with 14 percent?

The so-called journalists of the world are not all actually working with the intention of informing the public on all topics with fair and balanced information. Some of them, gasp, are just out to make money and/or play the minor god complex and be the ones to decide what the “news” is. But this should be no big surprise.

The everyday journalists of world world (a.k.a. your average Internet user thanks to the marvels of technology) is even less likely to follow the advisable methods of research before publication and thus even less likely to bother thinking before commenting or reposting.

In either case, the blame falls all over. I mean, come on; we’ve all been guilty of acting before thinking (drunk texts or emails, commenting or posting without reading through everything), and we will all probably be guilty of doing so at least once more; some folks will continue to do so daily because they just don’t know better.

Regardless, we can try to make a change. Much like the over-coverage of gun issues that has been dominating the headlines and feeds because of recent events, the idea of outright falsehoods being perpetuated again and again can be combated.

The first step is in realizing that we the people are asking to be duped, in a sense. We ask for interesting or sensational news coverage. We shy away from reporting that takes too long or that involves topics we are unfamiliar with. We regularly watch programming or read articles with blatant bias or lacking in substance outside of gossip.

As such, the media adjusts what they offer us to maintain our reader/ viewership. The media diminishes the coverage of what people are not paying attention to, according to studies, and doubles down on infotainment.

It is a vicious cycle that is unlikely to ever be quashed. All we can really do is strive to keep somewhat of a healthy middle ground, and to achieve that middle ground, we have to demand and actively participate in the more “complicated” issues.

This is not to say we must become overly cynical and expect lies and deceit at every turn. That would be a dismal world view to be certain, but we need to get into the habit of understanding that hearing something from one source, no matter how much you might believe in it, is not enough; even a third or fourth source often falls short.

We have to come to the reality that news sources or folks who are portrayed as reputable might still be wrong, or if not wrong, then lacking in a balance of details. Skepticism is healthy, and the whole of America could do with a whole lot more of it in their consumption of media in all forms.

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Gabriel Stoffa is a graduate student in political science from Ottumwa, Iowa.