Introduction
On October 3, 2016, an article written in the Los Angeles Times reported that Pope Francis was not going to support Donald Trump for the presidential election. Instead, Pope Francis opted to urge the American faithful to "pray, study the two proposals well and choose with a conscience." A blog called WTOE 5 News later released an article stating that Donald Trump had been endorsed for the election by Pope Francis.
The Credibility of Sources
Clearly, although the other one was fictional, the Los Angeles Times was real. The first post came from a credible source, to begin with. WTOE 5 News, on the other hand, is notorious for reporting false stories. Secondly, the WTOE 5 News article had a provocative headline to draw the attention of readers while the Los Angeles Times headline did not have a shocking headline. Lastly, the Los Angeles Times article cited reputable sources like A Pew Research Centre Survey and apnews.com that backed up the claims. On the contrary, the WTOE 5 News article cited official-sounding sources which did not support the claims in the article.
The Influence of Fake News
Fake news is harder to distinguish and more acceptable because it highlights current issues that are of interest to the readers. For example, during the US presidential race in 2016, individuals were interested in political issues, hence susceptible to false information. In addition, some fake sites mimic the URLs of the genuine sites. For example, ABCnews.com.co, fake site mimics the URL and the logo of the genuine news site ABCnews.com.
The Implications of Fake News
Fake news disseminates falsehoods that undermine the confidence citizens have in their democratic process. The misleading information causes uncertainty which enables political polarization to thrive. Moreover, fake news appeals to individuals' cognitive biases and denies them the ability to make rational decisions in democratic elections.
