Two Reasons Fake News Is Good For Society

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Dominique Nguyen Professor Olson EWRT 2 March 23, 2017 (Insert creative title here) Within the past couple of months, fake news has begun to emerge as a significant issue within our society. I have become aware of this due to my active presence online. Whenever I am scrolling on my Facebook feed or perusing through my Twitter log, I constantly see articles with over tens to hundreds of thousands of views being shared/retweeted. However, at least half of the articles end up being “clickbait” or entirely false, which can be extremely misleading and is one of the main catalysts as to how misinformation is spread. The most absurd aspect is that many people end up believing the fake news, easily influencing their thoughts and actions. Fake news …show more content…

He claims that fake news allows us to appreciate “good quality accurate news” and causes people to become “more skeptical of what we’re told” in his article “Two Reasons Fake News Is Good for Society.” However, his argument is invalid in the sense that inaccurate news does more harm than good, for instance, the A Dog’s Purpose incident and the pizzeria shooting. McGregor seems to be trying to get society to perceive the pros that can be taken away from fake news. Additionally, there are a few cases in which fake news can positively influence the mass, such as when it was used as propaganda during World War I and II. The British government subsidized the Overseas News Agency (ONA) to “feed manufactured stories, often couched within factual material, about German atrocities...and Hitler’s threats against the Americas, to its New Jersey Radio Station, which tagged them with the news agency label.” The British’s intention was to turn the American “population against Germany” so the U.S. would join the war and side with the British. As months progressed, the United States eventually did join the war. This demonstrates that fake news can have a positive impact on the mass. However, this could have not gone as planned and could have upset the Germans even more, making matters

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