Social Media Bias

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Pokharel 2 Sriya Pokharel Prof. Sharifian GOVT 2305 – 75431 04/30/2018 Assignment Three The technological advances we are seeing in the world today is unmatched. The world today is succeeding in fields, fields which few decades ago were not in human knowledge. Information of new successes and progress travels quickly around the world. All the knowledge we need is within our fingertips and we have multiple platforms available to help us learn more. The world is webbed with all kinds of information and people are trying to get more about all things. In this rapid progress it is very easy for sources to manipulate knowledge seekers. It is convenient for a lot of parties to spread fake news for their little benefits. Like all things good that have …show more content…

This news is very eye catching and often times convincing about the lies they want to support. There are various factors that pulls people towards this fake news. One of the major reason for the spread of fake news is the extensive use of social media. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google, etc. are becoming a junction to connect people from all different kinds of backgrounds. The mass of people enjoying social media attracts the fake news sources that want to influence people to believe the lies. The news being published in social media is more accessible and can be followed easily on a regular basis. This is the reason most of us feel easy reading the news that randomly occur in our profile rather than actually looking for the facts. A news story published by The Wall Street Journal talks about the research done by Stanford University. The research was done to find out the capability of young adults to distinguish between fake and real news. The research showed that 88% of young adults acquire their news from social media rather than actually looking at credible news sources. [1] This data shows how easy it is to spread the fake news and reach out to more people by publishing these news on social media. These news not only spread false knowledge but also create a sense of fear or confidence about things that are not true at all. Acquiring little or no knowledge from these …show more content…

The quiz I took really helped me to understand the parts of news better. It also helped me to understand my weak points and my strong points while I read news. So, each time I read any news I will pay extra attention to see if I am letting any of my biases creating a hindrance in identifying the news as real or fake. Many nations, social media platforms have been raising voice against fake news and have introduced programs to try to eliminate fake news. We can also play our part in the fight against fake news by paying special attention to all our biases before reading any news. This will also help us fulfil our responsibility of a good citizen. References 1. WSJDigitalNetwork. “Study: 5 Most Students Cannot Distinguish Fake and Real News.” YouTube, YouTube, 22 Nov. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYc-hd1QSwA. 2. 1 Kiely, Eugene, and Lori Robertson. 5 “How to Spot Fake News.” FactCheck.org, 19 Dec. 2016,

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