Fake news" typically equates to untrustworthy news sources or specific articles/news content. Determining whether or not a source is trustworthy, depends on if the said source is credible (Tandoc Jr, Lim, & Ling, 2018) . Credibility can be broken down into bias (if any), authority, and accuracy (among other factors, of course). It is important that the public understands and can recognize components that make a news outlet fake or trustworthy. Sometimes, fake news is also manufactured by the distributors of news. Source of the news could explicitly mention themselves as a satirical news site or humour tweet handle and publish distorted news. Still, due to widespread social media, the same message will be forwarded to millions as real news. You can identify fake news by checking the news source if it has been published by a trustworthy media organization (Read, 2016). Fake news does not have authors or publication dates. Furthermore, they do not have domains and URLs. They also do not attract a lot of traffic like the real ones the number of comments and viewers can identify them.
Fake news is particularly toxic because it can misinform the public, prevent the public from taking the initiative in solving serious social problems, and the public may fall for the agenda of political actors with sinister motives. A democratic country requires trustworthy and reliable information to be available for voters to make their decisions (Read, 2016). When mainstream news outlets like the broadcast networks, CNN, The Washington and New York Times Post fabricate stories or manipulate language to deceive their viewers and readers, the result can be a badly misinformed public unable to make voting decisions intelligently. As a result, it is a threat to the foundation of the republic.
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The most susceptible people are those that are not familiar with the inner workings of the media, and that trust what they read like truth. These people are the most susceptible. The society is also more susceptible to fake news (Tandoc Jr, Lim, & Ling, 2018) . It’s often a case of a willful lack of rationality. Some people want their delusions to be true so very badly, and will buy in to even the most ludicrous ‘fake news’ so long as it’s something they agree with or helps validate their worldview.
Responses
Courtney Smith
I concur with Smith regarding his arguments on fake news. He presents his arguments in a straight forward manner such that the first-time reader will be able to comprehend what you are trying to put across. However, smith does not provide enough evidence to convince the reader to agree with his arguments. More research on statistics and figures of how fake news has affected the public should be presented to enable the reader understand its destructiveness.
Leneva Day
Drawing conclusions from Leneva’s argument, I agree that fake news can be dangerous to both the public and the country. Leneva’s points concerning fake news and how the internet has been the main source are well presented as well as how they can be identified. However, Leneva fails to address all the aspects specifically those susceptible to fake news. I would advise that she should always comprehensively address all the points drawing arguments from different sources to make more interesting.
References
Read, M. (2016). Fake news [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.c-span.org/video/?418867-5/washington-journal-max-read-internet-fake-news-democracy
Tandoc Jr, E. C., Lim, Z. W. & Ling, R. (2018). Defining "fake news" A typology of scholarly definitions. Digital journalism , 6 (2), 137-153.
