There are numerous concerns regarding the quality of information presented to the public today. Many people have suffered as a result of fake news and misinformation. The methods of dealing with fake news are unclear information which results in more adverse effects on the public.
What is Fake News?
There is no consensus on the definition of the term "fake news." Oxford English dictionary, for instance, has defined fake as counterfeit, spurious or a sham. From the definition by the dictionary, fake news means content that has been put in the public domain with the aim of being taken as something that is real but in actual sense, it is falsified. In other words, fake news is a term that has been used to refer to intentionally fabricated stories about something which appears to be true, but they are not. Although many of the fake stories have been termed as untrue, some have factual distortions or partial truths, which make them even harder to identify. “Fake” may also be used to refer to deceptive practices that aim at misinforming the public. A digital media professor at Pennsylvania’s Lehigh University, Jeremy Littau, supports this statement by his words “They’re trying to get you to believe something that’s independent of the truth” (Stoffers,2017).
Acquiring the difference between “fake” and “news” has been of great importance because various media codes of practice state that Journalism should ensure accuracy in news reporting and failures should not be part of fake news (Woods, 2017). Journalists are required in human case law to verify stories before publishing them to avoid reporting on falsified information.
Implications of Fake News
Fake news present people with a lot of problems. The problem is created when people acquire inaccurate information in fake news making some people believe in such information. Once the misinformation is lodged in the head of an individual, it is difficult to correct it. Political scientists Jason Reifler and Brendan Nyhan argue that people who have such inaccuracies dislodged in their heads refuse to change their wrong beliefs even when they are presented with reliable facts. In some instances, these people also double down on the misinformation. This act is referred to as the "backfire" effect (Uscinski, 2017).
Another implication of fake news is that they have eroded the ability of the public in distinguishing between fictions and facts. Fake news has also presented some of the tech companies like Google and Facebook with challenges on how to deal with the sites that publish such news. Furthermore, the challenges have been complicated by free speech or freedom of expression. Another issue is that fake news can be problematic to identify. Sites providing fake news are easy to create since the internet offers anonymity. As a result, any individual having a design software and a computer can start their news site and configure the site as legitimate. Such an individual may include amateur bloggers, people who want to make money or even political partisans who try to tarnish the image of their competitors or candidates (Stoffers, 2017).
References
Stoffers, C. (2017). Fake News Fooling Millions! Retrieved from https://upfront.scholastic.com/issues/2016-17/010917/fake-news-fooling-millions-.html#1300L
Uscinski, J. E. (2017). Fake News Freakout. Reason foundation. Retrieved from https://reason.com/archives/2017/02/05/fake-news-freakout
Woods, L. (2017). Raising Questions about Fake News. IICOM. Retrieved from https://www.iicom.org/images/iic/intermedia/october-2017/im-oct2017-fake-news.pdf
