Over the past few years, the phrase “fake news” has become a household word in the United States. Like the term “propaganda” during the Cold War era, “fake news” has come to connote the manipulation of the public through misleading or frankly false information. Fake news can be spread by anyone with a Twitter account or Facebook page, making it far too easy for fake news to proliferate. In fact, the mainstream media can even spread fake news, knowingly or not. As beneficial as social media might be to the democratic sharing of information, social media also facilitates fake news. One of the reasons why fake news has an allure is prior exposure. When a person reads a story that resonates with them, they tend to believe that story to be true without going through the process of fact checking or verification. The phenomenon of confirmation bias ensures that individuals will share a news item if it coincides with their personal or political beliefs. Another reason why fake news can be alluring is that people like to join a crowd and get caught up in mob mentality. If enough people share a news item, it goes “viral,” making it seem even more credible due to its popularity. In other words, people are prone to believing a story just because it is popular: a phenomenon known as the ad populum logical fallacy. The problem with fake news is that it leads to ignorance and undermines democracy. Confirmation bias and mob mentality promote the proliferation of fake news, and only education and awareness can curtail the influence fake news has on society. One of the main reasons why fake news proliferates is that people tend to believe things that they are already familiar with, or which confirms their prejudices. Prior exposure to a fake news story makes a person more likely to believe in the veracity of the information. The prior exposure phenomenon is a type of confirmation bias, whereby “we pick out those bits of data that make us feel good because they confirm our prejudices,” (Heshmat, 2015, p. 1). New information might create cognitive dissonance, a conflict between what we believe to be true and what is actually true based on science or reason. Donald Trump has frequently referred to factual evidence as “fake news,” a clear example of how people cling to false beliefs because they do not feel comfortable with change. Trump “has labeled accurate news reporting as ‘fake news’ or spread false information himself, while at the same time accusing the media of being ‘fake’ or ‘dishonest,’” (Kiely, 2018, p. 1). Many people are starting to have trouble telling the difference between fake and real news because of poor leadership and a lack of ability to think critically and practice media literacy. In fact, just a one-time exposure to a fake news item...
Fake news is sinister and difficult to curtail because even just one exposure to a fake news story can reinforce prejudicial or irrational beliefs.References
Becker, B.W. (2016). The librarian’s information war. Behavioral and Social Sciences Librarian 35(4):188-191. DOI: 10.1080/01639269.2016.1284525
Borchers, C. (2017). How to squash fake news without trampling free speech. The Washington Post. Oct 12, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/10/12/how-to-squash-fake-news-without-trampling-free-speech/?utm_term=.5d1ece384b9d
“Facebook Has a New Plan to Curb 'Fake News'” (2017). Fortune. http://fortune.com/2017/08/03/facebook-fake-news-algorithm/
Heshmat, S. (2015). What is confirmation bias? Psychology Today. 23 April, 2015. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/science-choice/201504/what-is-confirmation-bias?
Kiely, E. (2018). Trump’s phony ‘fake news’ claims. FaceCheck.org. https://www.factcheck.org/2018/01/trumps-phony-fake-news-claims/
Nossel, S. (2017). The pro-free speech way to fight fake news. Foreign Policy. 12 Oct, 2017. http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/10/12/the-pro-free-speech-way-to-fight-fake-news/
Papanastasiou, Y. (2017). Fake news propagation and detection. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3028354
Pennycook, G., Cannon, T.G. & Rand, D.G. (2017). Implausibility and illusory truth. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2958246
Pennycook, G. & Rand, D.G. (2017). The implied truth effect. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3035384
Shao, C., Ciampaglia, G.L., Varol, O. et al (2017). The spread of misinformation by social bots. Social and Information Networks. https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.07592
Waddell, K. (2016). Algorithms can help stomp out fake news. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/12/how-computers-will-help-fact-check-the-internet/509870/
Pervasive Video Games as Art The form and function of art has evolved and changed quite a bit over the years, decades and millennia. Paintings and sculpture have been artistic mainstays for much to most of the world of the civilized human race. However, with the technological revolution that has roared up over the last fifty years or so, new forms of art have bubbled to the proverbial surface. Digital technology
Art of the Invisible: Listening Responses Radio as Storytelling Like all artistic media, there are subtle and unique elements to radio which distinguish it from other forms such as the written word, TV or film. Nowhere must the radio producer be more cognizant of the uniqueness of radio than in the radio documentary. The most intriguing of this week's listening was Rudolph Arnheim's piece "In Praise of Blindness." He disputes the idea
He simply cannot escape these expectations. So, when Robert DeNiro takes on a comedic role, such as the role of the potential father-in-law in Meet the Parents, the moment he comes on the screen, the audience is aware that he is Robert DeNiro, in addition to the character that is being portrayed. Therefore, his character can do things that other characters could not. Who but Robert DeNiro could portray
Internet Privacy for High School Students The unrestrained stream of information is conceived necessary for democracies and market-based economies. The capability of the Internet to make available the vast quantity of information to practically everyone, irrespective of their locations thus entails large benefits. The Internet provides access to the greatest libraries of the world to the students even in the smallest towns and permit the medical specialists to analyze the patients
It is a farce, founded on dishonesty: like the old regime itself. And Alex has become the neurotic, control-freak prime minister, acting on behalf of an ageing, debilitated monarch" notes Peter Bradshaw, the film reviewer of the Guardian. A real-life parallel might be that of a child in a nursing home who carefully controls his or her parent's visitors, diet, and lifestyle. Politically, Bradshaw's implication is that the love
online retailing operates, what kind of problems they face and the kind of environment they operate in. The author has also focused on Asian online retailing and special focus on Hong Kong online retailing. It has 22 sources. Access of basic necessities of life has followed the conventional method of buying and selling. This pattern changed in the last decade with the emergence of information technology age. When consumers have
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now