George Bernard Shaw, the Nobel Literature Prize winner in 1925, once adroitly stated, “Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.” Throughout history, fake news has affected societies in its countless forms and manners. Whether it be promotion of political propaganda or destructive rumors that are spread like wildfire, fake news has left its imprint on history and will live on forever. Just as a chameleon changes its colors to match the environment, fake and biased news will always exist but in varying forms. Today, fake news predominantly exists in social media platforms juxtaposed to the newspapers before. Contrary to common belief, fake news and biased news are two distinct ideas with varying impacts on society.
Fake news transpires in many forms and for a multitude of reasons. Fake news is any information that is deliberately deceiving and factually inaccurate and found in the form of true news. Information that is false such as fake news can be classified as either disinformation or misinformation. Misinformation is when a false version of a fact is spread either accidentally or purposefully, while disinformation is when information is designed to be fake and is purposefully spread. Therefore, fake news is disinformation as it is usually used to further a purpose or agenda (Fake News on Social). News becomes fake when the information is intentionally forged (“Fake News” Gale). This false information can be found in the news stories of social media platforms and in the form of articles, radio talk shows, and the internet (Solberg). In the current day, social media has increasingly become the prominent with many people receiving their daily news updates from these platforms. Rather than receiving their information from a credible news station and journalists, these people choose to digest their news quickly in the short headlines and blurbs on social media. Often times these people do not check the validity of this information and may share it with others, resulting in the spread of fake news (“Fake News” Gale). Fake news is created to elicit a response and influence the readers’ attitude, beliefs or behaviors that result from it. These dubious personas are attempting to instigate reactions by discussing controversial topics on extreme ends or inflame disagreement amongst the public with strongly opinionated sentences (Fake News on Social). Additionally, it is often used as a form of advertising, where clickbait, or appealing images and titles, are used to entice any user into viewing the information. This form of advertisement generates large amounts of money and misinform thousands of people. Other times, fake news is used as a part of a political agenda by discrediting opposing candidates or adding merit to themselves (“Fake News” Gale). This can allow the politician to increase his or her political control over the intended public and allow for them to take advantage of it (Solberg). Fake news is factually false information that is created for various reasons by various people.
Fake news is deployed through many mediums and can be identified and combatted against with several techniques. Fake news can be found anywhere and everywhere information is displayed. Whether it be on the radio, television or the social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook used today. The most common source today is social media, and the algorithms these platforms use has made them especially vulnerable (Fake News on Social). Another form is deep fake videos which are used by people to discredit and implant memories into the minds of some people. The algorithms used to combine unrelated video and audio with other footage in a manner that can depict people doing something they are not doing are very complex (Hutson). The current media ecosystem makes it very easy for conspiracy theories and misinformation to spread without any counteractions that would slow or stop its spread. However, this issue is not new and in the United States. hoaxes and satire has plagued the news throughout its history as political propaganda (Solberg). In order to prevent the further spread of this fake content, AI technology is being used (Hutson). Algorithms are put in place by the social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook to screen information as it is posted and spread (Solberg). Fake news can be very difficult to detect as shown by a study done by Stanford’s Graduate School of Education on students throughout the nation. The results displayed an incompetence in evaluating the credibility of information and discerning the difference between fake and factual information. To aid students, many suggest that schools teach their students validating skills and to read as if they are fact checkers (Domonoske). Additionally, students can make use of several credible fact checking sites while doing research (Solberg). Politicians have begun to call on laws that will force tech companies and social media platforms to regulate the information that goes through their systems and ensure that very little false information is released (Fake News on Social). Information that is factually incorrect can be found in a variety of sources and be detected and combatted against with some difficulty.
Fake news can have drastic impacts on society and affect it in many ways. One of the most recent examples of an effect fake news has had on society is the Russian disinformation campaign that occurred during the 2016 US presidential elections. Several studies have found that those who voted for President Trump did so due to several pieces of fake news that they believed to be true. Furthermore, Donald Trump has also continued to say that certain news outlets are spreading fake news and so he has created further distrust of politicians and the news (Fake News on Social). However, this impact is not new and has continued for many centuries with one of instance occurring in 1475 in Italy. A preacher had, in an attempt to incite Anti-Semitic feelings, accused a Jewish man of murdering a boy as a part of a religious ritual. This resulted in his arrest after which he was tortured and then killed. However, fake news has not always resulted in a negative consequence, with the founding fathers of the United States using it to excite the colonists and turn them against the British king (“Fake News” Gale). Many students cannot tell the difference from fake news and factual news they may see and so they often may take action that is incorrect or misinformed (Domonoske). However, it is not only the students who cannot tell the difference, with studies showing that all people are easily fooled, although older people have a better chance of resisting the temptation. Enough exposure to any false information can cause our brains to remember it and result in us adding more details and believing it is entirely real (Huston). Fake news can have disastrous consequences and affect the world as we know it.
Biased news arises for an array of motives and in different forms. One of the most common sources of bias in media are polls. Polls are used for many reasons, but the primary reason is to sate the public’s insatiable thirst for numbers and data when it comes to the elections. These polls however are often used by the modelers to convey certain ideas or portray one side as superior to the other. Polls can distort public opinion and are often in such large numbers that they can overwhelm the user into making decisions he or she would normally not make (Knull). Bias can appear in the news by means of catchy headlines which are printed in large fonts and are often mislead the reader. Two articles about the same topic may have different headlines which are indicating different conclusions while still appealing to the person’s excitement (“Savvy Info”). For example, the author of “The New York City school controversy shows why standardized testing is broken”, chose to use words such as controversy and broken to indicate that he disapproved of standardizing testing. Throughout the article, he chose words which added a negative connotation to the idea and also used examples which were supportive of his cause (Vilson). The article has been written from a far-left perspective and appeals to far-left readers, looking to confirm their beliefs. This confirmation is called confirmation bias and is the act of looking for information which supports one’s own beliefs. The reason this bias is so often successful in hooking readers is that we as humans have been wired since we were young to accept, reject or change any information that we hear to suit our beliefs (“Why We’re”). The selection of words and the connotation they have can also portray certain details as greater or lesser than they truly were and influence the readers’ inferences (“Savvy Info”). In the center version of this topic, the author chose to use the phrase “a good move?” as a part of his title in order to indicate a more neutral position (Leef). However, this neutral position is not retained very long and as the article continues, he uses words with positive connotations to refer to those who support standardized testing and negative ones for their opponents. When more neutral articles are written, the author uses words with neutral connotations or acknowledges all sides of the topic with equal regard and refrains from indicating a specific opinion. The author chooses to lay down all the facts and allow the reader to create his or her opinion rather than attempting them to see the superiority of one side or the other.
Although similar in many aspects, fake and biased news are not the exact same idea. Whereas, fake news often involves including information that is factually false and made-up (Fake News on Social), biased news is simply the omission and selection of facts to support a cause (“Why We’re”). They both result in information that has been adjusted to support beliefs, but fake news is adding information and biased news is taking away from it. Often times, fake news is much harder to detect as they may be based on some fact or simply be an exaggerated fact itself. Biased news can often be identified by the views it is supporting or the stance it is taking on the topic. Although the same can be said for fake news, the information that is fake may be harder to spot and identify.
While conducting research on the fake and biased news, I was surprised by the abundance of both in almost all the information I encounter every day. I had known to some degree that every article was written with some bias but did not really understand the extent of it. I did not know that even the slightest use of connotation can change the entire meaning of the sentence or even article. Furthermore, I can now see how often information can be factually false and the methods I can use to ensure that I am not acting upon these falsities. Not only will I be more careful what I read, I will also check where it came from and attempt to identify the bias that was used when writing the article itself.
Fake and biased news are two very distinct ideas which can both affect society in a multitude of manners. Fake news is most often described as information that is factually false or an exaggerated form of factual information. Biased news on the other hand is information that has been adjusted, by choosing only certain details, to support a belief. So, the next time you read an article will you see the bias that it is written with and be able to identify the fake information that was included?
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