Why do we continue to fall vulnerable to these headlines? I will try to break down the “fake news” controversy, which plays on the minds of countless citizens in our country. The meaning of fake news appears intuitive; news accounts that are false. However, it has evolved over the years. For example, in the political realm, “fake news” is a tactic used to discredit opponents; if it flies against your agenda, it is fake news. While no one political party is immune from trying to play the game, real life consequences result from it as it hinders people’s ability to obtain the truth. What are “alternative facts”? Kellyane Conway, former campaign manager for Donald Trump’s successful presidential run, and now his Special Counselor, spoke those now infamous words. In an interview with “Meet the Press”, she used those words to defend …show more content…
BuzzFeed News reports, “Fake election headlines about the elections fooled American adults about 75% of the time ”. So, what should we do about this problem? First, having a skeptical mind is not the issue, but questioning indisputable facts is the real problem. Second, realize that in the Information Age, fake news exists and it tries to grab your attention and alter your mind. Do your part and do not spread misinformation with Facebook News; instead, call out the story for what it is – fake. Third, everyone could use a course on fake news, how to spot it and what to do about it. Fourth, remember if we work together, we can severely lessen the amount of fake news we may encounter . The Russian communist revolutionary, Vladimir Lenin once said, “A lie often enough becomes the truth”. How terrifying! I do not like living in a post-truth society and neither should you. Lies divide people and limit conversations. In order to understand our differences and try to come to a solution, we need more dialogue, not
Fake news is a problem that has affected everyone, especially politics, you’ve might of encounter them before but they’re hard to indicate them. Fake news are false articles or stories that are passed down as true. These fake news are categorized into three different spots. The categories are Satirical news, clickbait, and Partisan bias articles. Satirical news or satire is a type of parody presented in a format typical of mainstream journalism. According to merriam-webster clickbait is “something (such as a headline) designed to make readers want to click on a hyperlink especially when the link leads to content of dubious value or interest”. Partisan bias articles are articles made by an adherent or supporter of a person, group, and party that shows favors of or shows being against one thing. Even though there many articles out there, Indicating whether they’re real is hard but not impossible.
The Internet has led to creation of fake news, which has affected politics in the United States. First, fake news is not a new problem plaguing society; this kind of news has been around before. Anti Semitics used rumors and outlandish claims, fake news, to spread misinformation about Jewish people. A Politico article titles “The Long and Brutal History of Fake News” said this about the spreading of misinformation about the Jews, “Today, historians have catalogued the fake stories of child-murdering, blood-drinking Jews, which have existed since the 12th century as part of the foundation of anti-Semitism” (Soll). As many of us know these lies about Jews have had a devastating effect on the Jewish community. An additional example of fake news
On the internet there are hundreds of thousands of different news articles, but not all of them are real. Fake news is a type of hoax or deliberate misinformation that you can find almost anywhere mostly because of social networking platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and News Feed.
When asked why the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer’s press conference was riddled with inaccuracies, she stated that he was simply “referring to a set of alternative facts.” The interviewer quickly pointed out that “alternative facts are not facts; they are
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
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.
When children are growing up in a world of media, they start learning the fake news before they know how to tell the difference. If students are not taught how to distinguish the fake news from the real news they will never develop proper arguments and accusations. America’s tradition of media basis
As a result of the heavy social media usage among the upcoming generation combined with the fact that large quantities of people gather their information from these social media sites, it is imperative that the issue of fake news is addressed. The social media platform is the ideal breeding grounds for fake news since information can be spread with the click of a button with little to no fact checking. The reader must remember that fake news exists solely to provoke a response and if the material seems outlandish or impractical, then it probably is. One way to address the growing problem is to question what we read. We should get in the habit of comparing the information provided to other sources to see if the facts line up. Also, Melissa Zimdars offers solid advice by assessing the domain. Information from washigntonpost.com.co, NBCnews.com.co. ABCnews.com.co, UnderGroundNewsReport.com, nationalreport.net, and many others are fake news. Lastly, becoming aware with the more common fake news sites is another way to combat spreading of fake news. By doing so, one can start reporting the fake news to the social media administrator and blocking further information from those sites. If we can all make an effort to question the sources and information we read then we can take the
The fact is, there is no problem more real than fake news and it’s time for the public to educate themselves on it.
In the recent presidential election, fake news has been widely circulated, and now, there is a dangerous movement to counter it. However, fake news must first be acknowledged as a serious problem. On December 4, 2016, Edgar Welch carried an assault rifle into Comet Ping Pong, a pizzeria in Washington, DC, and fired a shot under the premise of liberating child sex slaves held captive by Hillary Clinton there. The entire conspiracy, dubbed as “pizzagate”, was perpetrated through social media and fake news outlets in an attempt to discredit Secretary Clinton (Siddiqui and Svrluga). This single event shows how dangerous fake news has become and how it has affected the lives of everyday Americans. Here is a man from North Carolina that has been influenced by fake news circulating the internet, and as a result, he endangers the lives of others and his own in hopes of proving a false rumor true. However, the most worrying part about fake news is how the government is about to limit freedom of the press under the guise of countering fake news. On December 23, 2016, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017. However, hidden within the NDAA was a different act titled, “Countering Information Warfare Act of 2016 (S. 2692).” This act provides funding for the US Government to counter
As it appears the fake news is often written and published under extremely inflammatory, or false headlines to capture public interest in order to obtain on financial gains. False reports ran rampant on social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, and
As the world evolves and changes due to the explosion of technology, so does mankind's ways of intellectual comprehension of informative news. The present day of news has overemphasized the meaning of fake news; which represents any form of false information that is illustrated as factual news. That tends to spread throughout the internet and the media. Misinformed news has taken over the world in so many ways, such as the birth of satirical and sketchy news, the financial motivation to publish actual false news, and difficult to sustain news.
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.
We can describe fake news as an article or media that displays false information and renders it as a credible news basis. Many times we get false news typically from websites that most of the time specializes in the wrong intelligence and sensationalized stories. In most cases, the outfit of these sites uses very provocative headlines to attract the attention of the bloggers and internet users. The most likely headlines are maybe celebrity and funny stories like not brushing teeth or a significant politician selling products in the black market. Fake news is predominantly becoming dangerous in the digital generation that we are living where a lot of people are believing and dwelling much of their time on the social media. People are usually not bothered to check the source or be keen on the dates and the headline integrity. Many a time when this kind of stories are shared and spread over the media the people with no doubt tend to believe the stories without even questioning and as being very truthful. Often, this can also become unintentional. This sequence is malicious in the social media world; the stories are usually at the top of the news feed.
Fake news can make you think differently towards many things, it can even change the way you think about an upcoming election or a new law. The way fake news gets spread around is simple. It gets shared over and over again on the internet and social media. There are some easy ways to spot fake news but sometimes it is not so easy to do so. Fake news can change the way we think and change our beliefs towards democracy in many ways.