Lately the public is much troubled by the spread of hoax, false news, and issues that are not clear. The news is spread in various printed media and electronic media in Indonesia, and mostly on social media.

Some personal and irresponsible people deliberately made hoax with various intentions. The motive could be for bringing down, defame the opposing party, seek controversy (under the pretext of fame) from them to favor and promote a particular group or people.

Public media exaggerate the hoax issue to legitimate the news, the media which should emphasize on essence even promotes sensation. It is the reality of media world in Indonesia.

Another problem that becomes viral today is from the issue of in-tolerant radicalism among Indonesian society. The issue of religion is used as a tool to disrupt diversity and political stability. Blind faith ( taklid ) and the habit of following the crowd are opportunities exploited by irresponsible mass organizations to disseminate the idea of ​​radicalism.

In the midst of the current situation, the people of Indonesia are required to always be selective and help themselves in sorting, selecting and or listening to the news.

One of the most effective measures to prevent or counter the news of hoax and radicalism issues is by using critical thinking , ie skeptical, analytical, and practical thinking methods to identify prejudices, biased news (issues of bias ), propaganda, lies, distortion (misdirection), misinformation (wrong information), on the media (FK UNS, 2014: 1).

All this time, critical thinking is only used in the academic, bureaucracy and medical community. However, looking at the current state of the media in the country, as described above, it seems appropriate for us to use and promote critical thinking.

The new idea to implement critical thinking can be done in two ways, for short and long term. In the short-term plan, critical thinking can be done by forming a group of “literacy people” to write opinions in the mass media (newspapers, newsletters, magazines and other news) in Indonesia.

This literacy will use Socrates’ discussion, which is a discussion to get solution of current issues, then integrate them into a writing. This exercise involves asking questions that can trigger critical thinking (FK UNS, 2014: 4).

In the long run, critical thinking can be taught as a subject in schools or as college courses. This method is seen as very effective, where teachers and / or lecturers teach critical thinking through the critical power of students and students, then compare them into the fact justification of hoax and radicalism.

For students, this status group not only acts as an agent of change, but also at the same time can act as a distributional of change which is a comprehensive dissemination to the community.

Then, if the long-term way can be done, then the existence of hoaxes and radicalism will be difficult to grow. This is to maintain the integration and diversity of our country, Indonesia. (*)

Editor: Bambang Bes