Everyone has been posting about hate groups and how much more dangerous they have become with technology within reach. It's true. They are no longer as obvious as they once were with the KKK and the Nazis. Instead of outright speaking their controversial truths, they now know how to hide their true motivations with flowery words and positive tones. I think something that can help with their development into technology is better educating people with what is and what isn't fake news. For a lot of people, they don't even know news can be faked so realistically. For anyone who reads this post's sake, I have researched ways you can tell if a news piece or statistic is fake. First, check the author. As simple as this sounds, many of us forget. For example, Wikipedia...not so credible. Tragic, I know. The second is also pretty obvious. If the writing uses all caps, extreme language, 12 exclamation points, or even spelling errors, it's probably not the most credible. Third, please please please check the sources they use. Let's say you aren't on Wikipedia (good choice) and you find this great source that goes over everything you want to talk about. But then you check their works cited and their sources are like Wikipedia, my mom, and my dream, again probably not the best source. Finally, since many fake news articles aren't going to be as obvious as I just made them sound, you can always check in with professionals to see what they think. Some websites for this from my source are "FactCheck.org, International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), PolitiFact.com, or Snopes.com" Additionally, if you are insanely lazy and can't click one of these links and/or are in AP Gov right now you can also ask Mr. Stewart himself and maybe he can help see if it is fake news or not. (Note: I have actually no idea if Mr. Stewart will/can help I'm just assuming.)
Source: https://www.summer.harvard.edu/inside-summer/4-tips-spotting-fake-news-story
PS. Yes I did check the author (Harvard), credibility, sources, etc. for this source. And once again comment and subscribe down below.
I agree that it's important for people to be able to spot fake news. I think a lot of the division in our country today is based on people believing the 'wrong' things or trusting an untrustworthy source, like what happened with Pizzagate. In regards to the democratic election, I have seen MSNBC misrepresent polling data for Andrew Yang multiple times, and earlier this year a confrontation between a group of MAGA teens and a native american man (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/20/us/nathan-phillips-covington.html) lead to so many conflicting articles and opinions the facts of what happened are still being debated. Many Americans no longer trust what they see and read, and this makes it very difficult to change people's minds. In the future I think the government will take action to stem the spread of fake news, and if that happens we need to have a clear definition ready of what fake news is so we don't end up violating the first amendment.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that fake news has become a huge problem in the United States. But I think the bigger issue this leads to is not being to trust anything that you read. There are many times I read a headline or article and I just cannot decide if it legit or not so I simply just dismiss the idea the article presents. This is very frustrating at times and I hope eventually the American media becomes reliable again.
ReplyDeleteI think you do a great job explaining how to double check for fake news because it is so common these days for people to find articles or news chains that are SO fake and not credible. Fake news has posed such a large threat in our society because so many people read news articles or headlines on Apple news (some even use social media) and treat them as trustworthy sources for news. This article by the Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fake-news-is-about-to-get-so-much-more-dangerous/2018/09/06/3d7e4194-a1a6-11e8-83d2-70203b8d7b44_story.html) outlines some of the scarier potential dangers such as people being able to falsify videos and images and have them be leaked as news. These dangers can be politically targeted, but sources are now saying they can began to target businesses and personal lives. I think people need to be proactive and have a more hopeful mentality when it comes to fake news, so we can start to filter through news properly.
ReplyDeleteI agree that fake news has become a bigger problem nowadays because of how easy it is to alternate information. I think a lot of us overlook the source since we just solely want the information. I think the skills that we have learned to find reliable information for an english paper needs to be used. It definitely is annoying but reliable information has been harder to come by.
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