checking if any record exists in mysql table php

I have created the function below;
To check if a record exists in the db or not, if record exists should return true, else false and currently returns the fourth column of the row which is the field $row['isannounced'].
The value will be true or false. But the problem is if the row is empty, the row count will still be 1. is there a better way to handle this?
Thanks in advance.

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