Fake News No More

Have you ever been browsing social media and seen some news that really just seemed ridiculous and unbelievable? And to your surprise, it is a news story that has been shared hundreds or even thousands of times and you realize people are actually believing it. This is something that is especially prevalent on sites like Facebook. People post these “news” stories that they think people will be gullible to and then want to share with their friends. This creates an epidemic of fake news and the consequence of this is a misinformed public who create bias and opinions based on these fake stories. According to David Buckingham, “Informed users of media need to be able to evaluate the material they encounter, for example, by assessing the motivations of those who created it and by comparing it with other sources, including their own direct experience” (Buckingham, 2007). It is essential that people using digital media, especially the younger generations, learn to critically use digital media. In order to do this, adolescents think critically about the source the story is coming from, what their intention for writing the story is, and who their intended audience is.

There are always articles, news stories, infographics, etc that are floating around that internet that people see and immediately give credibility to. As of March 2018, roughly 52% of people surveyed that have seen “online news websites reporting fake news stories in the United States” (Statista, 2018). Adolescents especially fall victim to this because they tend to be more likely to believe everything they read. If there is not some sort of legitimate source used for the facts in the story, then more than likely the story is not accurate. It is essential that young users of digital media try to find the sources of what they are reading and make sure they are accurate and legitimate. Look at who is publishing it. Is it is some random small company? What is the mission statement of that company? Is it some random Twitter page? Who runs their page? Is it an article written by some shady news website? Is that website mostly just a gossip page? Authenticity is important and being able to recognize authentic work online is essential in critically using digital media. According to Christina Nagler, a writer for Harvard Universtiy, four tips for spotting a fake news story include: “vet the publisher’s credibility”, “pay attention to quality and timeliness”, “check the sources and citations”, and “ask the pros” (Nagler, 2017).

This video talks about how fake news can be spread and what that means for the world. It talks about fact-checking and making sure sources are legitimate. A specific example the video mentions is that a discredited article about vaccines causing autism has had people believe vaccines are bad for many of years. This is an example of people being gullible to what they read and thinking that just because it was written by a scientist, it must be true.

These skills of critically using digital media are not only important for adolescents in general but specifically important for young impressionable students. Students are often asked to write papers and conduct research for their classes in Middle and Highschool. It is important they look at who is writing the source and what message they are really trying to convey and who they're trying to get the message to. I believe it is essential to giving students a proper education that educators teach their students how to critically use digital media. In such a day and age where information is so easily accessible on the internet, it is important for students to have the skill of recognizing when their source is legitimate or not. According to Warner, “Interrogating the processes and conditions for digital text production, translating the cultural messages they contain, and exploring the effects on audiences or how they are otherwise taken up in the world is central to this piece of critical digital literacy” (Warner, [no year listed]).

Adolescent students fall subject to most of the fake news out there. I would argue that as once being an adolescent student, I felt as though we were the target audience for most fake news. Since adolescents are at such a vulnerable age where they are often finding themselves trying to form their own opinions about most things, they can be targeted by fake news websites to try to get them to fall subject to believing their illegitimate news.

Class Resources:

Buckingham, D. (2007). Digital media literacies: Rethinking media education in the age of the internet. Research in Comparative and International Education, 2(1), 45–55.

Warner, J. (2017). Critical digital literacies. In Adolescents’ new literacies with and through mobile phones (pp. 143–159). New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing Inc.

Outside Resources:

“Frequency of Fake News on Online News Websites U.S. 2018 | Statistic.” Statista, www.statista.com/statistics/649234/fake-news-exposure-usa/.

Nagler, Christina. “4 Tips for Spotting a Fake News Story.” Harvard Summer School, 2 Mar. 2017, www.summer.harvard.edu/inside-summer/4-tips-spotting-fake-news-story.