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Effects Of Fake News
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Fake news has been circling the internet and television for quite sometime now. Even if it was a few decades ago or this past hour, fake news has made its remarkable existence to be seen or heard. For example, CNN has been around for the longest time. Now, CNN is one of the many networks out there who is considered fake news. Mostly everyone knows CNN as “fake news”. The reason for that is CNN will tell the stories based on its opinion and almost trying to convince the viewers and readers what they are saying is true. They will have headlines exaggerating the severity of a story to increase the views and clicks per story (also known as click baits). The countless amount of people who watch or click these stories is what keeps the program going …show more content…
People watch the news to participate in the community, to become aware of what is happening on the other side of the country. If programs, such as CNN, cannot provide true, factual statements, then where are the people going to achieve this true, factual statements from? According to “Combating Fake News in the Digital Age” by Joanna Burkhardt, she mentioned several hoax websites. One of these hoax websites is MartinLutherKing.org. MartinLutherKing.org was created by Stromfront, which is a white supremacist group. Its goal is to deliberately spread false news about Civil Rights activist by discrediting its work, writing, and personal life. Looking at the name of the website, especially the “.org” part, informed readers that it was an unbiased website, because “the domain extension was usually associated with nonprofit organizations working for good” (Burkhardt 5). On this …show more content…
Fake news has gotten its name by misleading, providing false and biased statements to their viewers. Turn on the television, scroll through news articles online, there is always one or several channels or websites who blow it out of proportions. “Combating Fake News in Digital Age” by Joanna M. Burkhardt and “Facebook's New Context Tool to Help Spot Fake News” by Chris are evidences to the problem, opposition, and resolve of fake news. It is hard to find a station or website of just pure facts, a station where news reporters let the viewers state their opinions instead of them stating their own. Networks of fake new should not exist, but unfortunately it does, and nothing can be done to prevent
Through manipulation and lies, media manages to modify objective news into biased news in order to convince the public of what the media wants them to believe. The article, “How the Media Twist the News”, by Sheila Gribben Liaugminas discusses the major influence that news has on readers based on their choice of stories and words. “How the Media Twists the News” has borrowed from multiple other texts such as the books like Public Opinion and Liberty and News, news magazine writers such as Ruderman, and news networks like CBS through Bias, A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News and CNN to make her arguments valid and prove that the news is biased and that it does influence readers significantly because of it.
The news industry has been known to supply heart wrenching stories from around the world, right to our living rooms. What most people do not know is, how reliable IS Fox news? Considering news is a part of mass media, you would not think any information that makes it on there would be altered in any way- except for length and clarity- but some of the “stories” do get altered, almost to a point where it seems biased and too emotional. The portrayal of information in Fox news relies heavily on ratings, causing them to only display emotional stories and not what should be news worthy.
In his essay, “The Good, The Bad, and The Daily Show,” Jason Zinser explores the vices and virtues of so-called “fake” news programs. “Fake” news, as Zinser explains, are those programs that blend newsworthy events with comedy. By examining The Daily Show, Zinser reveals both positive and negative impacts that “fake” news could have on society. As a result, Zinser concludes that there are benefits as well as potential problems with “fake” news programs but insists that the true challenge is determining the net impact on society. The essay, which first appeared in The Daily Show and Philosophy: Moments of Zen and the Art of Fake News in 2007, challenges experts on both sides of the argument who either claim fake news is for entertainment only or that fake news is an acceptable source for information on current events. On one hand, Zinser uses expert testimonies to support his argument that the end result is a better informed public but on the other, he makes logical arguments enhanced by examples to illustrate the potential impacts “fake” news can have on its viewers and mainstream media.
With every large successful materialistic object or figure in society comes its pros and cons. For the Fox News Channel, these pros and cons include its overall ratings and viewership. For over a number of years Fox News has remained atop of the rating scale in the number one spot, providing the public with the news. People claim it is biased and justly unfair, however, it is that very news that they produce which has made it famous and one of the most well respected news networks to this day.
One of the major problems in the American media today is non-objective reporting which is also known as bias. This has been a trend since the early 1980?s and is very alarming for American citizens who watch the news for truth and honest reporting. Not only has bias been a problem in the broadcast media of ABC, NBC, and CBS, but it has also been a problem in mainstream newspapers such as The New York Times, The Sun, and The Boston Globe. For years, these media outlets have built their reputations on truth and now the trend is to lean left and not tell the whole story. Evidence of this has become very prominent in war coverage and election bias. Bias in the media is a big issue and causes lots of problems throughout the public such as losing trust in a once great source for news, people going elsewhere for information, being ill-informed, and leading to a low voter turnout.
The media is often considered to be biased. The reason for this is because they do not act neutral on the things that they report on. They usually give their point of view and tend to warp the information so it’s easily digestible by the average person. This type of “nugget feeding,” can influence the judgment of some one who has no idea what is going on. The media tends to sensationalize the news by making it seem dramatic, and compelling. This hooks the viewer, and keeps them tuned in. The purpose of this is for ratings, and most importantly money. The media has become less professional, and their morality has gone down hill. The editors/gatekeepers decide what information is sent out for the public to see, and hear. This is another way that the news is shaped for our viewing pleasure.
Everyday, people around the globe watch countless hours of television. Many of these hours consist of fictional entertainment shows that have no bearing on the outside world. Although many people do watch local news networks, most of these stories do not affect people around the globe. Only a few networks such as The Cable News Network (CNN) and Fox News are around the clock news networks. These networks are able to pick and choose the information in which they make available to the public and spin the stories to form a bias of the people.
They claim that since something is able to on these feeds, it must be valid, otherwise it wouldn’t have permission to be posted. When referring back to people blindly trusting the media because they have no other outlets, the same idea could apply here. The truth is, though, untrue things ARE able to be broadcasted on the Internet or television. The web is essentially an open forum for anyone to say anything, so it is advised that only websites ending in ‘.gov’, ‘.org’, or ‘.edu’ can be fully trusted. Television, however, is a different story. In an online article, Cynthia McKinney explained that while the American media does have a problem with omitting, misinforming, filtering, and over-exaggerating it’s information, it has the legal right to do so. “Courts in the US have ruled on many occasions that freedom of speech also includes the freedom to lie,” McKinney stated. She went on to discuss that some lies aren’t protected by the constitution, like lying under oath or being untruthful to sell a product. Later in the article, she refers to a documentary that she watched where two reporters went in to work for Fox News. After being told several times to lie, the reporters were told by executives of the network that, “The news is what we say it is.” McKinney ends her article by saying it wasn’t a surprise to her that more and more, people are turning to alternative news outlets for more accurate information. Touching back on the executive’s quotes, “The news is what we say it is,” one may notice just how similar it sounds to the Party in 1984 - “‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past” (44). This quote is explaining the theory of doublethink, a way of reality control enforced by the Party. Apparently, 1984 and the Fox News Channel are very similar in the thought that they hold ultimate control over the
From the beginning days of the printing press to the always evolving internet of present day, the media has greatly evolved and changed over the years. No one can possibly overstate the influential power of the new media of television on the rest of the industry. Television continues to influence the media, which recently an era of comedic television shows that specialize in providing “fake news” has captivated. The groundbreaking The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and its spin-off The Colbert Report have successfully attracted the youth demographic and have become the new era’s leading political news source. By parodying news companies and satirizing the government, “fake news” has affected the media, the government, and its audience in such a way that Bill Moyers has claimed “you simply can’t understand American politics in the new millennium without The Daily Show,” that started it all (PBS).
(Nope)", by Adee Braun and Kristin Lewis, and "The Story that Got Away", retold by Debby Waldman, both explain fake news and risks that come from them. For example, Fake news can spread and not be taken back. The second article retold by Debby Waldmen, uses the analogy of scattering feathers on a windy day, and trying to retrieve all of them. This is a near impossible task that is very similar to spreading fake news. Once fake news is spread out into the internet it can be shared and posted many places, and read by anyone. Also, Fake news can be written about real people that don't have control over what is said about them. The article "Are These Stories True? (Nope)," talks about a story made up about "Hillary Clinton selling weapons to terrorists" (Braun and Lewis, 10). At the time, she was a main Presidential candidate, and if multiple people read and/or shared that article, her support could go down. This is an example of a fake article that could hurt a person who had no control over the story. Fake news can be very dangerous because it can be spread quickly and can portray bad things about random people who did not support or create the fake
Considering today’s constantly changing technology, we are now able to access news stories at the touch of our fingertips through our mobile phones. When the world is flashing media and news at us constantly it becomes difficult to know what to believe. Television news is no different than other forms of media. The main purpose of news shows it to provide its viewers with the most up to date information from the days before while keeping them engaged. Many times, the news stations become more worried about keeping the viewer ratings up than covering the most important stories.
Naturally, journalism would spill over to the Internet and as social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook grew in popularity, so did regular citizens involvement with sharing news. The argument can be made that the explosion of social media journalism was due to frustration from the lack of coverage of news that mattered to society. For example, the lack of subjective coverage of Michael Brown 's death helped with the creation of #BlackLivesMatter and spread of news related to African-American’s and other minorities across the country. After all, journalism is supposed to be a public forum. Millions of people on Twitter share their thoughts and opinions on several topics, furthering the conversation and to some degree challenging society. Things such as “Moments” on Twitter provide us with direct links and summaries to the world’s most important stories and encourage a conversation. According to journalism.org, 63% of users on Twitter and Facebook get their news from these websites. Even more eye opening is that 59% of users on Twitter keep up to date with news stories via Twitter while they are in the process of happening.[3] The rise of social media related journalism has caused some issues however. “Inevitably, as citizen involvement grows, more of our media culture is concerned with talking about news, instead of focusing on original reporting and the vetting of it.”[4] Because the general public has the ability to post as they wish and pass it off as news, it has affected the accuracy of many reports. Many stories lack reputable sources but are shared between millions as an accurate and true story. There are several websites designed to spread inaccurate information. The website www.fakenewswatch.com exists to inform people of these sites in order to avoid mishaps. Recently a Connecticut mom went viral for being involved in an online hoax
But how can we be sure that the news is not biased? Are we receiving information accurately, with details being simple to understand? After further research on media framing, I’ve come to realize that it is not rare to be someone who is skeptical of the news. In decades before now, media did a better job serving the public interests inside their news stories (Callaghan, 2001, p.186). But now, journalists may mix up facts intentionally and build a different story (Callaghan, 2001, p.184). How can one feel safe after knowing the media changes stories to keep us interested? Boring stories may not keep someone excited or fully interested, but at least people would not be misinformed and can, in a way, better prepare for what they will face outside their
Fake News is constantly being written, permeating through television broadcasts, internet sites, and magazine articles. It seems that the amount of false news in the world is starting to overtake the amount of genuine information. This is indeed a problem, but not as much as people make it out to be. This is for a few reasons. Fake news is much like bacteria, there are both beneficial and harmful types of fake news. Beneficial fake news is usually
...stence depends upon continued success in furnishing readers and listeners with a wide range of facts,” said reporter Julian Adams. By the public depending on media for information, they are making the media money. Buying newspapers and magazines are compensating those companies. Listening to your local radio station and watching your local news channel is compensating those companies. “Staging (fabrication) or deliberate distortion of news is against public interest,” said writer William B. Ray. Society believes in media and the media believes in the society. So let the society know the real data and what’s important. Knowing what’s important captures the public’s interest rather than knowing what’s fake. Falsifying News is legal meaning the media is allowed to lie to the public. Everyone has their own views on this topic but either way lying to the society is wrong.