Fake News And Its Effects On The Election Of The United States

Everyday, billions of people read websites, magazines, newspapers, or watch television segments so they are informed on what is happening in the world. The news is something that so many people rely on and check constantly. What people aren’t aware of however, is that so much of what they are being told is a lie. False news is a growing and constant issue in today’s society. Fake news spreads rapidly, changing people's views on the world constantly. However, putting an end to this media trend has proved to be a struggle.

The 2016 election has been the first election where social media has been a key player to how people got their information. Statistics say “44 percent of American adults said they had learned something new in the past week about the election from social media.” However, with social media such an important influence on the younger generation it is important for all of this information to be legitimate and truthful. Google and Facebook have recently changed their policies to try to stop fake news articles from popping up within their ad space. The spread of fake news articles skews the public's perception of the candidates. The guardian talks about how the American voter is not just one demographic (college educated individuals, white men, minorities etc. ) because of this lack of (straightforward), it's hard to get an accurate prediction on who would have won the election. Additionally, the media affected the election negatively because they did not give the general public enough information to understand the statistics that they were

It was a cold November day as people gathered around their television, eagerly awaiting the news of the 2000 Presidential election. Would the victor be Texas governor George W. Bush or Vice President Al Gore? It was a close election, with Bush only leading by 537 votes. “The 2000 presidential election was the first in 112 years in which a president lost the popular vote, but captured enough states to win the electoral vote.” (The Disputed Election) However, if the majority of eligible Americans would have voted, the outcome may have been different. Throughout American history, the number of voting participants diminishes. According to Warren E. Miller, “[n]early 63 percent of the voting-age populace went to the polls in 1960, when John F. Kennedy

During the election, the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump told his supporters in Columbus, Ohio, Aug. 1 that he worries the Nov. 8 election "is going to be rigged." Some of his party leaders went on TV, and social media to condemn Trump’s rigged claims, and some Republican governors say there are no signs of corruption in their states' voting systems, and the Democrats’ blasted him. President Obama was among his fiercest critics who criticize him for saying that the American election system is rig. Obama said “claims of a rigged election as potentially corrosive to American democracy” and that “You start whining before the game’s even over?” and he continue to say “One way of weakening America and making it less great is if you

The final votes are cast by what’s called the Electoral College, which is a system put in place by Article II of the Constitution where citizens vote in the general election to select a group of electors who are pledged to vote for a party’s candidate. Each state has a certain number of electoral votes that are given to the winner of the state’s popular vote. Trump managed to win some important Swing States, which are states that could go to either candidate and are highly competitive. Found in these states are the electoral votes most candidates consider necessary to win the election. This explains how Clinton managed to lose overall despite the 2.8 million vote victory in the general election. The next section of the article deals with the election results in different areas and how it contributed to Clinton’s loss. This connects to our class through the term political ideology, which is a person’s consistent set of ideas about politics that they learn through culture, life experience, education, etc. People living in mainly white, non-urban areas usually vote republican, and on the other hand, people who live in big cities or who minorities typically vote democrat. A big part of Trump’s victory was the surge of republican votes cast from those rural communities. Finally, towards the end of the article shows the role the media could’ve played in Clinton’s loss. As a Linkage Institution, the media connects the people of the United States to the government, or in this case, the candidates. When the news came out that the FBI was going to reopen their case on Clinton due to the finding of new possible evidence. Two weeks before the election, it was not good for Clinton’s campaign and may have resulted in more votes for trump. That goes to show how influential the media can be on an

In “Presidential Campaigning and Social Media”, John Hendricks and Dan Schill conduct a research and show percentages of how many people from each political party rely on social media during elections. Their research showed that 48 percent of democrats and 34 percent of republicans think that keeping up with political news through the use of social media is very important (Hendricks). People think that it is important because they cannot only express their own opinions through social media sites, but they can also look at other people’s opinions and compare the two. Although this can be a reliable source to use during elections, this has become an issue recently, especially in today’s election with a figure as big as Donald Trump in the running. Many people only know Donald Trump from his social status instead of his political standings; therefor many people that support him are doing so for the wrong reasons. People are voting for him not because of his political views, but instead because of his social

Almost all media stations were predicting that Trump would lose the election and Hillary would come out victorious, however, that of course was not the case. Trump came out with 304 electoral votes while Hillary had 227. One Media outlet stated, “ I predicted Clinton would get 318 or 320 electoral votes and win the popular vote by five or six points.” The media had almost entirely made up their mind on Hillary winning even going as far as to say, “That probability is that Hillary Clinton, with all her strengths and weaknesses, is going to win on 8 November, and is quite possibly going to win by a very large margin. Unless something quite exceptional and so far wholly undetected is happening – the instinct for bet-hedging, you see, is hard to shake off even here – Clinton will be taking over the White House in January.” The media based their tellings off of personal and sometimes false information. In the article, “ How I Got the Election Wrong” the journalist describes how he was unwilling and unable to open his eyes and hear the point of views of other more “common” american citizens with different views. He said that the type of people he surrounded himself with were people with the same views and that he was unaware of the growing amount of people who were voting and advocating for

It is the chaotic month of November, and the fate of America lies in one candidate’s hands. With the election coming to its scandalous end, the country has been a tremendous user of television, internet, newspaper, and radio. Presidential nominee, Donald Trump has not hesitated in releasing numerous shocking statements, and the reporters have not resisted their urge of publishing his words. Nevertheless, it is evident that, “By decreasing the effort necessary for journalists to gather information, politicians can garner substantially more media attention for themselves” (Niven). But, as one inspects the features of all mass media closely, a pattern of specific contents and people constantly being under the radar can be noticed. The boundless attention from viewers, reporters and advertisers bring fame, and support to candidates, whether it being for negative or positive purposes. While covering every aspect of candidates, “The mass media’s representation of campaign discourse influences whether voters have the opportunity to scrutinize the candidates’ issue priorities and policy proposals” (Hayes). High ratings, biased opinions, exaggerated news, and politically incorrect expressions are usually the type of contents drawing the society to itself. Similarly, due to his erratic and unexpected behavior, Trump has gained vast news coverage, risen to fame through social media, and gotten both honored and dishonored simultaneously throughout his candidacy.

The article highlights that the Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, might only appear to have a hand over Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential campaign. Trump promises that in reality his campaign is winning. He is currently accusing the media for publicizing “phony polls” that show Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is dominating the playing field.Trump's claims that “What they do is they show these phony polls where they look at Democrats, and it’s heavily weighted with Democrats. And then they’ll put on a poll where we’re not winning, and everybody says, ‘oh, they’re not winning,’ .The ideology that Trump holds is that the media only shows you want they want you to think and that sometimes comes out of the

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

In a survey from Weber Shandwick titled “ Real Plague: Fake News” found that 82 percent of americans are concerned with fake news. In the article “ Fake or Real? How to Self- Check The News And Get The Facts” Wynne Davis claims that fake news is a big problem and people who consume news need to know if what they’re reading is true by reading the about us section, looking at comments, and doing a reverse image search on the photos from the article.

These news stories not only shape society’s world view, but they can hinder or harm its perceptions if people believe them. In an article for PBS Newshour, Nsikan Akpan says, “Fake news, once confined to satire or the fringe bowels of the internet, has quickly become a contender for the most influential phrase of the year. Following Donald Trump’s surprise election, story after story has questioned the role that fake news played in swaying voters.…” (Akpan, 2016). The U.S. is currently embroiled in scandal after scandal involving not only the election, but in stories that arose from fake news sites. These sites though, are impossible to ignore because they are invading every pore of media they can find, and it takes a very discerning mind to navigate this web of media, complete with the

In the days leading up to November 8th, 2016 news sites and services showed more and more signs of the United States of America electing their first female president, Hillary Rodham Clinton. The reports ranged from almost 100% chance of victory for Clinton to closer to 70. The paths to 375 electoral votes showed plethoras of routes for the Democrats and one or two for the Republicans. However, on the morning of November 9th, the world was shocked when out of nowhere the populist Republican Donald J. Trump came out victorious. The media scrambled to find a scapegoat or a reason for this error in the calculation; voter turnout, Russia, and voter I.D. restrictions were all speculated as the reason for this plot twist of politics, but in the

On November 8, 2016, the United States was filled with mixed emotions from the outcome of the presidential election. For many, the results of the election were shocking because the candidates in this election were so different. The final votes were very close, but the results showed that Donald Trump would be the next President of the United States. When looking at the election, people focus on the how many votes their candidate received. However, many people do not look past just the vote itself. By this I mean, they do not realize the sociological concepts that play into the election. By looking at the election from a sociologists’ standpoint, there are many other important factors that contribute

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.