Fake News Is Old News
Fake news is a phenomenon that we see on an almost daily basis. It’s strives on the inter-connectivity social media and those who are prone to believing in whatever they read online. Nowadays when I go online I expect to see at least one fake news article or someone talking about a fake news article. It’s a way to make people panic and show how gullible they are.
One of the strange trends that fake news has covered is celebrity deaths. I remember a few years ago there was an article about how Barry from the ‘Chuckle Brothers’ had died and people were posting their sympathies on their pages on Facebook. Another one was Jackie Chan who to prove that he wasn’t dead posted a selfie with the news paper of the current day. It’s happened to many other celebrities before as well and will carry on for years. How would the family of these celebrities feel if they went online to see one of these articles? This wouldn’t happen to people who weren’t celebrities because the writers want to cause a fuss about it. They want people talking about the wrong things which then turns our attention from real news that is actually important to people.
Recently there has been a lot of negative fake news about Theresa May’s government, and especially about Brexit. There has also been a lot about Trump and mainly news about his twitter. These writers are using their podium to spread their anger towards these people which many people would also agree with. The readers find it funny and it shows them that although we should we don’t take these people seriously.
Most fake articles are easy to spot based on the titles that they have. If the title is a bit far-fetched and sounds made up then it most likely is. Fake news has made people more skeptical when going online as they are unsure of what they are reading. There are so many websites out there for fake news, one popular one is called ‘The Onion’. One of their articles was that Neil Armstrong was ‘convinced moon landing was faked’. Who would actually believe that this was real, but as soon as someone would see that the man himself that went to the moon believed it then so would they. If one person starts going alone with what they are reading then more will follow. Other titles there has been include:
- ‘KFC serves customer deep-fried rat’ by Devorise Dixon
- ‘Obama admits to singing in the shower’ by The Onion
- ‘Woman gets third breast’ found on social media
These titles just show how ridiculous the articles can be and yet some people can still believe them. Stories like this could actually in fact ruin businesses as some people would read the title about KFC and be horrified and share it with their friends. Yet if they chose to look up more about it they would only then discover that it was a fake but that by then they could have already damaged the business’ reputation.
It’s been said that Facebook are being pushed to target and try to get a hold of their fake news problem as most of it comes from this site. They added a 10 step guide on how to detect if an article is fake news but this still doesn’t get it off their site. It’s been said that they understand they need to do more to tackle the problem and that when an article advert comes onto their page they don’t ask questions about who is funding it because they’ve been said to not care. Adverts that should be showing up as red flags based on what they are trying to do are getting away with it. It’s their way of not taking the blame for anything, but who knows, Maybe that was a fake news article.
If we’re going to fix the problems that fake news cause, we’re going to have to educate ourselves. There are even quizzes that you can now do to see if you can spot these fake news articles or not. From now on if you read something online that has had an effect on you in some way or your view on something has changed, you should research it more. Compare different news websites that are official and see if they have said anything about the topic or if there are any fake stories out. I don’t have a problem with fake news, only if people know it’s fake and if it causes no harm to anyone. Sometimes the stories are quite funny to read but the bad outweigh them.
It’s like the age old rule says; don’t believe everything you read online.
With thanks to Jess Dummett and Toby Menzies-Sacher
