Fake News and its Impact on Society
Fake news in the 21st century is one of the major issues that have raised concern among governments, intermediaries and even end users of the information. Fake news is a series of deliberately created stories that are incorrect that are spread to promote or favor some specific individual’s interests (Balmas 440). With the development of the digital world, fake news has found a perfect platform in the social media and the internet to spread such news. This is because there is access to massive audiences on the social media platforms than any other news outlet. In addition to that, the news is spread fast thus reaching as many people as possible before it is discovered it is a created story. Therefore in this paper will discuss the spread of fake news through social media and the internet and the impacts the information may have on the end users.
The Influence of Fake News on Political Polarization
The greatest enemy to the economic developments in the digital fake news that leads to the spread of unreliable information. Regardless of the fact that most fake stories in the internet and social media platforms revolve around politics, we cannot ignore the fact that the information does have an impact on the society and the economy at large. For instance, fake news is the main factor responsible for polarizations witnessed in our societies. This is witnessed more during the political events. One example of such was during the gubernatorial elections in Jakarta where more than 1000 reports regarding the elections were confirmed as fake. One specific story regarding the election was about the candidate from the opposition that said that in case he lost the elections the country was to fall into a Muslim revolution (Allcott, and Matthew 234). This fake news exacerbated tension that was in the society and pulled the nation cultures even further apart.
The Disruption of International Relations
In addition to polarization, fake news leads to the destruction of relations between different countries. For instance, one of Qatar’s news agencies was hacked and its tweeter account was used to spread the fake news in May 2017. The comments published alleged that the Emir criticized the United States’ Foreign policy. Even if the news company acted swiftly in labeling the news fake, it did not prevent the international community from severing diplomatic ties with the country.
The Impact of Celebrity-Related Fake News
In another level, development of the internet and social media has increased the obsession the society has on the celebrity concept that it has never been before. The social media platforms are dominated by celebrity scandals and tabloids on a daily basis. But regardless of the fact that the stories regarding celebrities can be seen to be fake, a lot of people cannot be able to differentiate between fake stories and real stories (Nielsen and Kim 480). Cruel fake tweets go viral on a daily basis ad this not only affects the esteem of the person in question but also affects his or her family or even funs. Sometimes such news destroys a person’s career completely. And to make matters worse, people tend to believe the fake news that they believe the correct and true stories. This has led to increased racial discrimination in our societies, harassments, damage to reputations and even intimidation. For instance, the recent hoax news regarding a jewelry store in the United States claiming that real diamonds were being replaced by fake ones by the store thus selling fake ones to their customers. This hoax led to the fall of the shop’s stock in the market by 3.7% thus causing irreversible damage to the reputation of the business (Marchi 250).
The Advancements and Challenges of the Digital Media
The dawn of the digital media has become a breakthrough in many aspects of the society we are living in today. For instance communication in the 21st century. People can share information while thousands of miles apart, such kind of information could take days in the old days. This has helped incorporate developments as companies are able to monitor the international market every minute thus making the most viable decisions that lead to the development of the economy. In addition to that, the digital media has led to the development of social media platforms that have led to rapid globalization and development of digital markets (Balmas 440). Companies don’t have to spend millions of money designing and organizing campaigns for advertisement of their products and services. Instead, marketing is done online in the 21st century. This has helped the society have a variety to choose from and also the companies to market their products with ease (Berthon et al 268). The digital media has also helped in political developments as people are able to track all the advancements in the political arena thus making informed decisions.
The Need for Control of Fake News
But with the existence of the fake news in the social media, the benefits are almost suppressed as most people are not able to differentiate real stories from the fake news. Therefore governments should come up with policies that are aimed at controlling the digital media and the social media platforms that are responsible for the spread of fake news. This will ensure that the society receives the exact stories that are not engineered to suit the interests of some specific politicians or influential personalities in the society. In addition to that, gaining control of the social media platforms will mean improvement of world peace as countries and societies will co-exist with each other without any tension.
Annotated Bibliography
- Allcott, Hunt, and Matthew Gentzkow. "Social media and fake news in the 2016 election." Journal of Economic Perspectives31.2 (2017): 211-360
The authors of the article try to explain the impact of fake news presented through social media to the public, especially the youths. The article further reveals how most people are likely to access the fake news because of the high population with smartphones hence receiving the misleading information. The article posits that most people believe stories that favor their thoughts, in this case, the false stories that favor their preferred candidate.
- Balmas, Meital. "When fake news becomes real: Combined exposure to multiple news sources and political attitudes of inefficacy, alienation, and cynicism." Communication Research41.3 (2014): 430-454.
This study tries to determine the association between exposure to fake news and attitudes of cynicism, inefficacy, and alienation towards political contestants during elections. The author utilizes data collected from the 2006 elections of Israel to come up with the conclusion that there is a positive impact on how fake news affect people’s attitudes in various aspects. He further stipulates that the attitudes are as a result of the perceived false news. Generally, the article authors’ argue that individuals tend to believe fake news as compared to true information.
- Berthon, Pierre R., et al. "Marketing meets Web 2.0, social media, and creative consumers: Implications for international marketing strategy." Business Horizons 55.3 (2012): 261-271.
The authors try to bring out on how the 21st century is attributed to the challenges and opportunities in the present world. The article further cautions the managers on the importance of considering the threats and opportunities that are associated with information from the social media, particularly false news. The article ends with recommendations on how the managers can achieve the above strategy.
- Marchi, Regina. "With Facebook, blogs, and fake news, teens reject journalistic “objectivity”." Journal of Communication Inquiry 36.3 (2012): 246-262.
The research focuses on the existing relationship between attitudes of youths and teenagers to news media. The author utilizes conducted interviews to understand methods used by adolescents to access information and why they prefer these methods. The article stipulates that youths prefer news from blogs, Facebook, and other fake news rather than from journalistic objective news.
- Nielsen, Rasmus Kleis, and Kim Christian Schroder. "The relative importance of social media for accessing, finding, and engaging with news: An eight-country cross-media comparison." Digital journalism 2.4 (2014): 472-489.
The study asserts how the use of social media including Twitter and Facebook is fast changing the process of news production, dissemination, and analysis. The research utilizes data from different countries to assess the type of media commonly used for news arguing television is mostly utilized. The article offers the similarities and differences of the growing use of social media across countries and concludes by stating that social media plays a primary role in shaping people’s habits and the news they believe in.
Works Cited
Allcott, Hunt, and Matthew Gentzkow. "Social media and fake news in the 2016 election." Journal of Economic Perspectives31.2 (2017): 211-360
Balmas, Meital. "When fake news becomes real: Combined exposure to multiple news sources and political attitudes of inefficacy, alienation, and cynicism." Communication Research41.3 (2014): 430-454.
Berthon, Pierre R., et al. "Marketing meets Web 2.0, social media, and creative consumers: Implications for international marketing strategy." Business Horizons 55.3 (2012): 261-271.
Marchi, Regina. "With Facebook, blogs, and fake news, teens reject journalistic “objectivity”." Journal of Communication Inquiry 36.3 (2012): 246-262.
Nielsen, Rasmus Kleis, and Kim Christian Schroder. "The relative importance of social media for accessing, finding, and engaging with news: An eight-country cross-media comparison." Digital journalism 2.4 (2014): 472-489.
