Technological innovations have taken hold in many countries across the globe owing to the speedy nature of development. The innovations have not had a better footing than it has in America, a country which is seen as the father of all innovations, closely followed by such countries as China and Japan. Of the most glaring result of technological innovations, the social media remains as the master of all innovations owing to its spreading use in many parts of the globe. In what could be described as “a generation of dumb people and smartphones,” the smartphones remain as leading channel of commutation that has found its way into the corporate world as well. Of all its use and purpose, the social media, news channels have emerged as leading avenues of fake news.
The fake news challenge traces its history in the political history of the communism and socialism in the USSR. Joseph Stalin is attributed to the father of fake news as means of creating a huge following and discrediting his opponents. The article by Jim Rotenberg creates a new dimension upon which the fake news has found its roots in the American politics of the day. The article discussed in the details the challenge that the media has to contend with in their efforts to shed off the emerging trend of fake new. A case example of the American political campaigns in 2016 where the fake news emerged as an influential factor that determined the outcome of the voting pattern.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
In what could be seen as the most dramatic of all American elections, Donald Trump held the stage and audience to their stands owing to his theatric approach to the emerging issues during the campaign period. The Republican candidate by then, Mr. Donald left the television viewers with spoils and stitches for those who cared to follow the proceedings. Many news channel papers including the New York Times, The Guardian and the Gannet strive to shed off the tag of churning off the irrelevant news for the sake of raking in money. There have been stringent measures by these newspapers to retrain and retain a huge chunk of its professional journalists who would then not be swayed by monetary allusions to influence their reporting standards.
The media has the sole responsibility of informing the public of critical matters that impact directly on their lives. For example, matters corruption is a sensitive bubble that throws many leaders into spanner work. The journalist societies have the sole mandate of informing the citizens of the true position of the governments and public officers on the progress of some of the corruption cases that emerge during their stay in office. However, the emergence of the overreliance on social media and independent journalist entities continue to create a hub of free-running journalists who spoil the public minds and attention with series of fake news. As the society moves further from the print media to more digital platforms, there has been a generation of pseudo accounts of some of the leading reliable newspapers such as the New York Times where unsuspecting readers are treated to series of inappropriate fake news that damage their entire comprehension of the true state of matters.
For example, several fake social media accounts including Facebook and Twitter that were exposed as being used to discredit Clinton’s campaign planner, Mr. Joel Berenson who they claimed to have written secret memo purporting to “salvage” candidacy by launching a radiological attack to halt voting. Such fake news was vastly shared by the team opposed to Clinton’s candidacy, who went ahead to say that she was paying pollsters to influence her score on the popularity index polls. Some of these posts were shared on Donald Trump’s twitter handle and got tongues wagging, but quite fast. The extent of fake news seemingly is not limited to news media but to distinguished personalities as well.
Mike Cernovich, who was taking credit for promoting Clinton’s health conspiracies, he boasts of his rising fame by claiming that “Someone like me is perceived as the new Fourth Estate.” In realities, his posts could stand trending for as long as those of leading companies such as Boston Globe or even Facebook posts of Washington Posts. The high chunk of journalists pouring into the market with an estimation of about 33,000 following 2015 census was on its way is half of what it was back in the year 2000.
The contradictions over the number of journalists present in the nation against the high number of the online engagements make it hard for the governing bodies to the fake news environment. Bloggers are emerging as leading disseminators of fake news in America. They are proving useful to politicians who use them to discredit their competitors on their online posts owing t a large public following that they have. According to t McCaskill, “journalism is partly yo blame” due to their slowness in attempt to conform to the times. as it stands, the internet is proving as a fast point of news, therefore the fake news may get ahead of the verified news. There is a need for the journalists to adjust to the modern times and trend.
Leading reliable mitigation for fake news is a huge chunk of good journalism practices. The news media needs to protect their niche as disseminators of a true story for them to remain relevant in the future American politics. It is the reason for the troubling financial numbers that emanate from American newsrooms. If the media cannot stand the stormy weather of fake news trend, then they are likely to lose more grounds, not only among the public but financially as well.
References
Jim, R. (NOV. 6, 2016). Media’s Next Challenge: Overcoming the Threat of Fake News. Media. New York Times. Accessed on 7th April 7, 2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/07/business/media/medias-next-challenge-overcoming-the-threat-of-fake-news.html
