Fake News and the Impact of Echo Chambers
PART 1:
Fake news is a term that many people have become accustomed to hearing for a number of years, but this phenomenon came to the forefront in 2016, during the presidential election. It is well known that Russians were creating stories with false narratives or information that were meant to evoke emotion and in return increase engagement. Although Facebook claims they had no impact on the election and they are doing what they can to combat fake news, it is simply not enough and to be honest quite ignorant. Facebook’s algorithm naturally alters your news feed to show material that is more likely to gauge interest based on past engagement, therefore users are not seeing differing perspectives or any thoughts/ideas that challenge their own. The lack of contrast formed the concept of echo chambers. The world we live in is focused on the user experience centered around likes, wants and desires- essentially ignoring anything we don’t care to learn about or have an interest in.
Brian Williams explained there was no room for exploring different interests or finding new songs on his ipod because it only allowed him to listen to the music he owned. The same applies to social media, if I am only following pages or liking things that support my opinion or interests I will be closing off any outside information that could be valuable or allow me gain a new perspective. When people choose to read or watch media that supports their ideas and avoid the opposition, they have created a confirmation bias that can be very dangerous. A large part of why our nation is so divisive is because of the refusal to accept opposing views. We are stuck in our own bubble and if any outside threat attempts to pop it, all hell breaks loose.
Now how do we reverse this problem?
As journalists we can only continue to do our job the best way we can, through verifying our sources and maintaining the ethics of journalism to provide the truth to the citizens of this country. Journalism is under more scrutiny than ever before and there is constant pressure to get it right, but the last thing we can do is stay complacent because we cannot allow our society to be engulfed by a thread of lies and misconceptions. As for the general public, the simplest way to stop fake news is to self educate and decide on what they deem trustworthy by using their own judgement. Not everything can be filtered or monitored, nor can we continue to point fingers for our own shortcomings, if we want something to change it must be by our own will.
Part 2:
From examining the Associated Press website I found an article called “AP-NORC poll: More support than oppose impeachment” and when looking at Breitbart I found a similar article titled “Poll: Majority of Americans Disapprove of Nancy Pelosi amid Impeachment Inquiry”. Now, both articles appear to be strikingly similar, but both carry different narratives. Breitbart refers to a poll by the Washington Post in an effort to seem credible and capture the luster from an accredited organization. So, I clicked on the link to see the poll they were referring to and as I expected, there was no information or statistics regarding Nancy Pelosi’s impeachment inquiry, therefore the roots of this story were almost entirely fabricated. In addition, surrounding their article are many advertisements and click bait images as well as the headline being in all caps. Breitbart used the poll as a way to target Pelosi, when in reality it was asking if Americans were in favor of Trump’s impeachment. AP news poll shows that 78% of Republicans disapprove of the impeachment and 83% of Democrats approve of the impeachment, it was rather straightforward. On Breitbart there were also various links to other news sources websites that screamed fake.
I understand that fake news is not always this easy to spot, but It is now our job as the general public to do our own research and make educated decisions that we feel comfortable with in order to ensure a future where the truth takes precedence over distortion.
