Argumentative Essay On Fake News

Fake news comes from countless places and spreads at an alarmingly fast rate. Usually, false stories start as a hoax on a small scale website, blog, or even social media post. A journalist from a slightly bigger news

When evaluating California Senator Dobb’s proposed Bill 135, one should ask whether it will be effective or will this Bill only fall short with education budget cuts. There are benefits when social strategies are taught to school age children, unfortunately with social medians rapidly change, it will be hard to identify the success and effectiveness in the near future. Perhaps the better strategies are those constantly been developed by social networks and social news media giants, for example, Facebook, Instagram, and NPR. In December 2016 Facebook launch tools for their users to be able to identify and combat fake news, similarly, NPR informs their readers is ways to identify fake news by performing simply self-investigative steps (Ball, 2017). Heppard suggest assessing the story’s credibility; reading pass the headlines, background check on the author, biases being portrayed, and using fact-checkers websites ((Heppard, 2017). By evolving with the constant changing platforms, these social networks and social news media are effectively keeping their users up to date with informative and strategies to identifying fake

The past seven years have seen the rapid adoption of social media platforms by users all over the world, today there are more than 2.46 billion active social media users in the world . Social media enables users to consume timely news inexpensively, and allows them to further comment, share and discuss the news with other social media users, making news consumption on social media attractive to a large portion of these users. For example, a recent study by Pew research center found that 67% of American adults get news on social media . However, compared to primitive news media like radio and television, news in social media is easy and less expensive to produce and distribute and it is not fact-checked or filtered by a third party prior to dissemination. This has made social media a very attractive platform for fake news creators, i.e. news that is deliberately created to deceive the reader to believe something that is not true.

However, if the news is based just on rumors, what would it be? It would turn out fake news. The recent memorable incident relating to the fake news would be during the 2016 US presidential campaign. In “The Journal of Economic Perspectives,” Enrico Moretti and Gordon Hanson state that fake news had some influence over the election result that Trump became the US president (Moretti and Hanson. 235). They also mention that they discover 41 articles which support Clinton or are against Trump and 115 articles which support Trump and are against Clinton (Moretti and Hanson. 225). These pro-Clinton articles were shared on Facebook 7.6 million times and these pro-Trump articles were shared 30.3 million times (Moretti and Hanson. 225). What makes surprising about this fact is those articles later turned out to be fake news. Before the news about Clinton’s scandals was leaked, there were much less of people who would vote for Trump and much less of fake news criticizing her. Nonetheless, her scandals came out, those fake news based on rumors increased the number. People read them out of their curiosity and shared them in a second.

Being trusted by millions of people is more than an honor or privilege, but rather it is a power of immense impact. It is a force that shapes the nation, for better or worse. As much good a journalism can create, it also used to deceive the masses and incite unrest. Recently, an article circle Facebook sites. The title was FBI Agent Found Dead in a Murder Suicide. It was published in an apparently-legitimate website. Truth is, it was a fake article published in a website meant to confuse readers. Many similar websites and articles had been created by the author Jestin Coler. At first, his motivations were heroic, trying to highlight the “failed” American government. During the 2016 elections, fake news about the candidates went rampant. Coler had 20 to 25 writers working for him publishing article after article of slander and propaganda for either party. Some of the articles published reached 1.5 million views in just ten days. Coler makes anywhere from $10 thousand to $30 thousand every month from ad revenue of people who visit his fake news sites. Despite his initial good intentions, Coler willingly deceived readers into believing outlandish claims simply because it was published in a “news

There are newspapers (such as the “National Enquirer”) renowned for their fictitious (although admittedly attention-grabbing) headlines, yet we hardly hesitate to assume the information is fabricated. On the other hand, when our trusted news sources present their stories, many automatically assume the information is true, which is why “[e]rroneous reporting by established organizations is a bigger threat than

The Comet Ping Pong story, and the even more disturbing news of the Kremlin’s role in our election, merely underscore fake news’s rapid ascent from an amorphous notion to perhaps the most significant digital epidemic facing the media, government, and, at the risk of sounding mildly hysterical, democracy itself. One Pakistani military offender, confused by a fake-news story, raised the prospect of a nuclear war with Israel. (Recall that Michael Flynn Jr., the son of Trump’s national security adviser, shared the Comet Ping Pong story on Twitter.) Meanwhile, our current president spent virtually his entire campaign inventing or proliferating fabricated stories such as his suggestion that Ted Cruz’s father was involved in the plot to assassinate

Surprisingly enough, the recurrence dates back to the establishment of the United States.When technology and different forms of communication progressively advance, it is only fitting that the severity and number of fake news stories advance with it. One major trigger related to the spread are politics (Karkouti). Many lies are created to turn different political parties against each other or bring out the worst in candidates (Parkinson). The sheer interest in dominating an opponent is one reason for the spread of inaccurate media and the idea was even utilized by Benjamin Franklin in an act to turn the rebels against England (Parkinson). Despite inconsiderate, the strategy has been proven effective. In addition to competitive motivation, money is also a driving factor for publishing fake news (Zuckerberg). The key correlation is advertising on popular sites. For example, if a small or unpopular source is able to write a false story, attracting numerous viewers, their site will gain popularity and interest (Zuckerberg). Furthermore, as people continue to visit the prominent article, the site can finally earn money. Other small internet corporations see the rising fame of the scene and envy the

Propaganda is most commonly associated with World War II, yet in our modern day society, we are still inundated with many forms of propaganda, both directly and indirectly. With current events such as the controversial election of President Donald Trump, propaganda has once again moved to the forefront of people’s minds, with an influx of ‘fake news’ and scandalous stories on an almost daily basis, as a consequence of the rise of social media.

In a work where news gets thrown in our faces right , left and center , it becomes difficult to filter out which news is true and which is not. But , before asking how to filter out the news , we need to ask ourselves why should we have to categorise the news as credible or non-credible ? Why would the person writing this article wouldn’t want to lie to me ? Many times a journalist may get a story from a source who may or may not be very honest or in some rare cases journalists may make up stories with twisted facts and misquoting individuals. However, in the media business , when someone makes a mistake , there’s always ten others who are waiting to point it out. What makes the media credible, to the everyday reader, is the idea that the

To anyone looking to avoid fake news, Leonard Pitts says to read a newspaper. Pitts points out that there is a difference in satire and fake news such an SNL skit being made to poke fun at news sources being compared to a story about Donald Trump being assassinated. The New York Time's recent case study explains that fake news arises due to people not bothering to fact check the articles they share online. Fake News has become popular in conservative communities and in those looking to confirm that they are the true victims. The alt-right movement and its supporters have lead us into a spiral of misinformation and fake reality.

This has recently become a major concern because it can have detrimental repercussions and affect people’s lives. There are many ways to take steps toward getting rid of fake news. Facebook and Google are taking major action to try and prevent fake news from being spread on their websites. One way they did this is by changing their algorithm which allowed fake news to be filtered out of their feed. Not only should companies be trying to combat fake news from being spread, but also the society as a whole should help this from happening. One way to prevent the increase of fake news is if social media users know how to spot fake news. Some things to look for when reading an article is the date the story was posted, the author, and even read beyond the headline to see if the article actually matches the outrageous headline. If we as a society do not change the way we share and view news, then nothing will change and fake news will eventually outshine the real

As a result, more made up stories will continue to be produced. Advertisers and website owners will unceasingly take advantage of human propensity for their own gain. Secondly, flaws within the journalistic process allow fake news to enter the production cycle. The major issues in journalism is the a lack of resources and the constant demand to produce. Marju Himma-Kadakas, the author of Alternative facts and fake news entering journalistic content production cycle, discusses these issues. She explains that “the growing amount of information is creating an information overload, which leads to ineffective information processing and poorer decision-making. The problem lies not in the information or the amount thereof, but rather in the ‘filter failure’. In such conditions, journalists’ role is to be ‘the filter’: to select and process information in order to make sense of society. ‘Filtering’ – conventional news reporting demands time and other resources, which often are scarce in online journalism”. In this excerpt, Marju Himma-Kadakas, makes an excellent point. Due to the excessive amount of information, it is a necessity to have a journalist that can sort through it to verify whether the information is accurate, reliable, and credible. Journalists also have to condense any lengthy information and make it into the common vernacular, if it is difficult to understand. However, you need resources (e.g. journalists, fact checkers, computers, etc.) in order to complete those time consuming tasks. If you do not have the required resources, then someone might make an irrational decision to publish an article without completing the production cycle (a series of steps before publishing the final product). This could lead to an undesired consequence-- fake news.

The purpose of this article, called “Technology is The Cause of ‘Fake News’ – But It’s The Solution Too” written by Seth Freeman, was written to educate the public on how fake news is getting spread. Freeman focuses his main attention on the people that were behind screens and that were quiet and virtually invisible. Throughout Freeman’s piece of writing he uses several examples for his method. One example, Freeman refers to a former Soviet state of Georgia and from Macedonia, where Freeman states that a teenagers discovered that they could make a lot of money by publicizing nonsense information, which could not be found anywhere else, in favor of one candidate. He also states that in Bloomberg, hackers were able to skew interests in and support

The recent surge in popularity of social media comes with a price: fake news. Fake news is defined as news or media that has been altered or modified. Journalists have begun to analyze why that fake news exists and why it continues exist. Two authors, Eoin O’Carroll and Kevin D. Williamson, both have written articles about fake news. Eoin O’Carroll’s article “How Information Overload Helps Spread Fake News,” discusses how the media has bombarded us with news stories, blurring the distinct lines between real and fake news. Kevin D. Williamson, a journalist for the National Review, writes in his article “‘Fake News, Media and Voters: Shared Reality Must Be Acknowledged” that the news is not fake; it just does not align with one’s personal beliefs. Both authors successfully appeal to their audiences’ emotions and feelings, but O’Carroll is more likely to succeed than Williamson in persuading his audience to try and combat fake news because the writer presents himself as someone the intended readers will more readily identify with and offers evidence that his readers will find more compelling.