Has Fake News Had an Impact on Voters Opinions on Candidates as Well as The 2016 Presidential Election? “Six months before the election, the overall Facebook engagement for top election stories from the mainstream outlets was greater than the fake news that was spreading.... [3 months before the election] the fake news spiked” (Davies). Although voters have blindly trusted social media sites and search engines such as Google and Facebook for information about the 2016 presidential election, these sites have fed them countless lies and altered their political views without them noticing. The spread of fake news through shared videos, incorrect statistics, liked pictures, and friends on Facebook and Google has caused the 2016 voting process to …show more content…
While many attempt to blame the writers, candidates, sponsors of these sites or Facebook and Google, for trying to modify their political beliefs, what is truly important is to see how fake news influences the reader's vote and find a way to limit its impact. Clearly, writers, sponsors, and sites were willing to do whatever it takes to get people to vote for their preferred candidate. Besides, voters should have been able to receive true facts about each candidate or have a way to differentiate between real and fake news presented to them. Throughout the past few years, a growing number of people have begun not only reading about the elections off unreliable sites such as Facebook and Google but also basing their votes on it. Have you ever read an article on Facebook about a candidate running for office? If so, there is a high probability that what you were reading may have been incorrect. According to, Aja Romano, an undependable blogger who graduated from Indiana University, Bloomington, “almost 40% of the content published by far right Facebook pages and 19% of the content published by extreme left-leaning Facebook pages were false or misleading” (Romano). Evidently, both parties and candidate supporters post inaccurate news in order to improve their chances of winning the …show more content…
To demonstrate, Mark Zuckerberg declared that over 99% of the information found on Facebook was authentic and that it would be ridiculous for people to believe that practical jokes changed the outcome of the 2016 presidential election (McAlone). Nevertheless, the untrustworthy Chief Executive of Facebook was distinctly attempting to defend his own website and job instead of claiming responsibility for the flaws in the website’s methods to avoid the advance of inaccurate information. Many other citizens believed that readers should be able to differentiate between real and fake news, however, this is not always the case, especially when lies may be hard to catch or come from sites readers completely trust. Additionally, a biased, uneducated blogger for Business Insider who strived to defend Google by discussing the difficult process news has to go through before its publication mentioned how, “A site first goes through a low-level algorithmic check, which looks at things like site structure. If it passes, the site then goes through a proactive review by a committee, which is encouraged to do extra research. In this committee, if the site gets an 80% or more consensuses, it passes” (McAlone). Clearly, the blogger is attempting to persuade readers that there is not a lot of fake news that gets through the system without
The researchers present findings that indicate that a politician’s popularity in the voting booth may be related to the frequency with which the candidate is talked about on social media. The researchers goes on to discuss how further research may conclude that social media has a bigger impact on voting outcomes than traditional forms of media, and how that could potentially shape the future of voting.
The choices voters make are deeply personal ones. The choices between candidates, when to vote, where to vote, and even whether or not vote are ones that feasibly have a number of influencing factors. In a mediated environment, there is little reason to believe that the messages and information potential voters receive from various media sources could be a part of the decision making process. Recently, there has been an increase in what are called “fact-checks” in which some purported media expert investigates the factual accuracy of statements that a candidate has made. Considering the vast amount of information that potential voters must sift through in order to make an informed decision, it would seem plausible that these fact checks could
They can lead to people becoming more fixed in their opinions, and creating a self-reinforcing cycle of information consumption. This has led many to believe it is the cause of increasing political polarization within the United States. In a 2023 Harvard study, scientists analyzed 2020 data for all adult Americans with active Facebook accounts, finding that the majority of the content that people see on the platform comes from ‘like-minded sources’” (“Facebook and the echo chamber: scientists examine how social media affects political views”). That is, people mainly see sources that share their political leanings, which then limits their exposure to diverse perspectives.
In the past media was stuck to a minimal format and stuck to the facts and the actual truth, with the spread of the internet media has grown larger and larger adding the factor of media bias and fake news. Now with the upcoming election going on the internet and news is focused on the candidates running and while it’s ethical for the people to know, there may also be fake news and misinformation about different candidates that may turn someone to a different political view. But while the election is in full swing, media bias in the news is affecting people’s opinions on political parties. Media bias is becoming more and more common, with common biases being slant, opinion as facts, and mudslinging. Social media is one of the biggest consumers
Thesis: With the recent emergence of social media into the mainstream, corruption within government functions has never been more manipulative of citizens. This is also clearly linked to the paralleled popularity of abbreviations and emojis when communicating, instead of using traditional English language. In the case of American politics, no one party or person can maintain (checked and balanced) control of the country for over eight years, so the 1984 concept of the government controlling the way citizens think is honestly ridiculous. What is very much possible, as seen in this past U.S. election, is the misuse of data to psychologically influence prospective voters to not vote because of their probable candidate preference.
The media in the U.S. presidential election is supposed to accurately portray what is going on without distorting or editing it. However, with the media the way it is today, this is usually not the case. While there are people who believe the media is good at showing the 2016 election, there are others who do not. The advantages of media are it is easily accessible, it is cheaper to get information everywhere, and it shows more of the candidate’s lives than before. The disadvantages of media are it can be distorted, it is not trustworthy all the time, and it focuses on the two major parties without talking to a great extent about the lesser parties.
Writers have the ability to influence the world, to change people’s views, and to inform those reading of events. As writers of CNN, Wesley Bruer and Evan Perez have the job of informing the public of current events that affect our lives. They also have the ability to influence the way their readers perceive that situation. Upon writing the article “Officials: Hackers breach election system in Illinois, Arizona”, these two authors ignored the fact that these hackers may have had the intention of affecting the elections.
Social media is a revolutionary way to connect with friends and family through a single app, much like Facebook. Also allowing the public to be more informed on current events, whether that is an issue in today’s society, all the way to a heartwarming story or a funny video. This sounds amazing and the fact that this type of news outlet is practically new. An issue arises that involves “fake news” and with that comes many opinions on what to do about it. I believe that people browsing these platforms should have a little bit of skepticism behind each story and if the topic truly intrigues someone then they should look into the topic on a reliable resource before passing on the authors misinformation.
It is important to uncover where biases began in our history, how the rise of social media has shaped the biases America faces, and which news platforms bias specific political
An article in the Washington Post stated “The final weeks of the campaign featured a heavy dose of stories about supposed election irregularities, allegations of vote-rigging and the potential for Election Day violence should Clinton win” (Timberg). In an age where news can be spread through social media so quickly, it is challenging to fact-check everything that is posted online. Martin Baron, executive director of the Washington Post, asks, “If people have a society where people can’t agree on basic facts, how do people have a functioning democracy?”
FOURTH: Here are the results to an online survey filled out by random people that I created. Everyone believed that fake news was a thing and most stated that it was in fact a problem in today’s society. The majority of people say that they do or at least have fact checked articles as you can see here in my graph. But there are many statistic that say that people are still fooled. B.
It was discovered the Donald Trumps use of social media saved around $380 million that would otherwise been used in buying ads in-turn the same information was given to the public free of charge through use of shares, likes, and tweets once posted. The impact social media had the the 2016 election was stronger then any past election and is stated to dramatically impact and shape campaigns in the coming years. The reason this impact was so substantial is because more and more people are beginning to receive their news from social networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc) creating a round the clock access to voters and news consumers. This process creates what is called a ‘feedback loop’, candidates post on social media which then makes the news, and that news gets circulated receptively through social media. Practically sharing the same information in three different ways, over and over, reaching millions.
Annie S. Hwang in her article Social Media and the Future of U.S. Presidential Campaigning writes "With its growing popularity, social media are positioned to become the smarter and cheaper alternative to traditional media advertising," and “Through one person’s social media account, a campaign can now connect to 500 friends and more.” These are basically the reasons behind being an important communication tool and that is what makes it important for the leaders who are in search for such a tool. A journal was published in 2012 “A 61-Million-Person Experiment in Social Influence and Political Mobilization," that mentioned about the study and its findings of how the messages on Facebook newsfeed can indeed have effects on voters. It stated Voter mobilization efforts are effective at increasing turnout, particularly those conducted face-to-face and those that appeal to social pressure and social identity.
The introduction of the internet to modern society has brought about a new age of information relation. Since there is no longer a need to wait until the next print day, news from all over the world is available at a person’s fingertips within hours or even minutes of the event. With this advent of such easily accessible information, new problems for the news media have also arisen. Aside from potentially losing good economic standing because newspapers are no longer being purchased in the quantities they used to be, the credibility of the information itself is also put into question. No one would argue that credibility of news sources is unimportant, but there is a discrepancy in what takes precedence; economy and speed or getting the information out correctly at the first publishing by taking the time to make sure all facts are checked. The importance of having a system of checks on all information submitted is paramount. People trust what they read and believe it to be so without always questioning. If all information were to not be checked thoroughly, there would be instances where people read an article only for information included to be wrong and they go on believing such information. This can be very dangerous as misinformed people make misinformed decisions. With an increase in errors being made by citizen bloggers and even major publications, many are worried that journalistic ethics and credibility in the news media are being sacrificed in order to maintain swiftness in the news circuit and to retain personal profits. Though getting information to the masses quickly is a major part of the media’s importance, this should not mean that the credibility of that information being presented should be sacrificed for it...
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