Related Essays
The Real from the Fake
Fake news is a phenomenon that arguably arose during the present decade. It has become a catchword, a battle cry, or perhaps just the repeated punch line of jokes. In that sense, it is similar to the world ‘selfie’ a few years ago. Nonetheless, fake news is more important than photographs and paraphernalia designed to promote the taking of photographs of one’s self. It has the power to distort the truth and, in doing so, influence actions that are unmistakably true. Fake news can become the basis of reality, depending… Continue Reading...
Recommended Topics
When does “fake news” become “real news,” if ever?
How did fake news affect the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election?
Has fake news been used by foreign powers to adversely affect U.S. interest at home and abroad?
How can people tell for certain when news is fake?
What is being done about the proliferation of fake news?
Outline
I. Abstract
II. Introduction
III. Review and Discussion
A. What is fake news?
B. The potential impact of fake news
C. Responses to fake news
IV. Conclusion
Title: A Real… Continue Reading...
Fake News: Knowledge Is Power
With the election of Donald Trump, it seems that power might come from the absence of knowledge. As Barton points out, fake news was once a fringe effect but has now become a "a strategy for consolidating executive power," (1). Anti-intellectualism and the dumbing down of American, which Richard Hofstadter describes in his 1964 Pulitzer Prize-winning book Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, highlights the problem of when a lack of knowledge becomes the key to political power when in fact knowledge should be the key to… Continue Reading...
THE ALLURE OF FAKE NEWS: Outline
I. Introduction
A. Thesis statement: Internet technologies enable the proliferation of fake news, and only education and awareness can curtail the influence fake news has on society.
II. Body Paragraph
A. Claim: Prior exposure to a fake news story makes a person more likely to believe in the veracity of the information.
1. Evidence: Just a one-time exposure to a fake news item on a social media platform like Facebook increases the likelihood that a person will believe the fake news story, with the effects lasting as… Continue Reading...
Thesis statement: Internet technologies enable the proliferation of fake news, and only education and awareness can curtail the influence fake news has on society.
A. Claim: Prior exposure to a fake news story makes a person more likely to believe in the veracity of the information.
1. Evidence: Just a one-time exposure to a fake news item on a social media platform like Facebook increases the likelihood that a person will believe the fake news story, with the effects lasting as long as a week (Pennycook, Cannon, & Rand, 2017).
2. Evidence: The prior exposure phenomenon is a… Continue Reading...
Media and Society: The Problem of Too Much Fake News
Is the era of fake news becoming too dangerous for our families today? As Jones (2013) notes, communication media in the digital world is a powerful tool that we all must be mindful of lest we risk using it poorly and causing more harm than good. With the recent news faux pas involving a group of high school Catholic boys being harassed by a group of protestors yet getting blamed by news media right and left, getting “doxxed” by celebrities calling for blood, and receiving death threats all… Continue Reading...
fake news has brought greater awareness of deception in communication (pew)” (Tompkins, 2018). If recent times have proven anything its that false information spread online has power: it has the power to make money for companies and it has the power to influence the action of people: how they spend their money, what they tell their friends and how they vote. As Tompkins illuminates, there is a greater nuance in ethical communication than just honest and deception and that the interests of the individual versus the collective have to be… Continue Reading...
share information widely and instantaneously. However, this ability to disseminate and share information has also led to the proliferation of fake news. As a matter of fact, over time, various fake stories, false rumors, and urban legends have been circulated widely – effectively misleading readers and distorting the true nature of various facts. Towards this end, quite a number of fact-checking websites have been created with an aim of countering the said urban legends, political spin, as well as fake news. One such website is snopes.com (www.snopes.com).
In essence, Snopes fact-checks urban legends and related stories to determine their validity and authenticity. The website, according to Fleischman (2014), “devotes scholarly… Continue Reading...
has decided to start filtering “fake news” from the site (Snider, 2017). But what constitutes fake news for Facebook might not constitute fake news for all of its users. In short, Facebook is embarking on the kind of content regulation strategy that China demands of its social media providers in the East. Is this a step towards Facebook getting China to agree to let the social media giant into the country? By initiating the regulation of content in the West first, does Facebook preempt the attacks that critics might make when it agrees to regulate… Continue Reading...
fake news), negotiations seem both unlikely to result in a win-win for all sides and more important than ever if all-out war is to be avoided.
Issues vs. Interests
The interest range from the need for stability in the region (Russia’s aim) to the need for economic gain via pipelines through the
region (Saudi Arabia’s aim) to the need for security through the weakening of foes (Israel’s aim—by overthrowing Assad, Iran is weakened as it has one less ally in the region) to the need to assert global dominance and… Continue Reading...
Fake News
Most people are impressed by someone who hangs a degree from an elite school like Harvard or Yale on their walls. It signifies that they are special, that they attained something few others have been able to do. What they don’t always realize is that those degrees are more like club membership titles than they are validation of any superior academic achievement.
The Problem with American Education
There are many issues with America’s schools. Whether it is the fact that American students lag behind others in math and… Continue Reading...
money from Russian organizations to plant fake news stories that were negative to Clinton’s campaign. Opinion polls suggest that a number of Trump voters believed those stories. Do social media sites have an obligation to let their users know when news is fake or made up? What about if a “news” article is from a paid source? Does Facebook need to let its users know the source of the news?
Outline
I. Introduction
II. Body
A. Background
B. The Role of the Electoral College
C. Was the Trump Campaign an Active Participant?
III. Conclusion
Introduction
The… Continue Reading...
critically about what I read, not just by avoiding the pitfalls of fake news, but also by avoiding a sheep-like mentality. Instead of regurgitating what other people say, now I feel more confident in my own ability to articulate my political philosophies as consistently and logically as possible. While I prefer to avoid political binaries like liberal/conservative, democrat/republican, socialist/libertarian, when asked, I usually admit that I lean Republican on most issues even if I am not going to always “tow the party line,” as they say. The problem with most political discourse is that there is an expectation to conform to some… Continue Reading...
fake news that can be cleared up with a brief rundown of what is known and not known.
Body
Illegal Immigration Defined
Illegal immigration can be defined as the migration of people who enter a country illegally—i.e., through passageways that are not controlled and that do not allow for a proper investigation of paperwork, visas, passports, etc. Thus, because the immigrant enters into the country without going through any type of inspection, the immigrant is said to be in the country illegally, having shown no respect for the border or… Continue Reading...
fake news" -- which is another expression that Durden loves to use when referring to other news sites.
The consistency of the point of view is also sufficient. However, there is a tendency for the site to get into a groove where it repetitively posts points of view that irritate readers, as the comments indicate. For example, when Durden posts the points of view of several mainstream media outlets over… Continue Reading...
fake news’ media does not provide (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017). The question is: is citizen journalism truly capable of opposing the special relationship between the state and its media—i.e., the CNN effect? Does citizen journalism pose a threat—informational, social, political or even economical—to the combination of soft power, interventionism, embedded reporting and the CNN effect that the U.S. possesses?
To answer that question, this paper provides an examination of the ways in which social media platforms are being used as a tool in citizen journalism with a focus on the… Continue Reading...
