As a busy society we rely and trust that news media will provide us with all the true factual information going on around in the world. The problem is that a lot of the news that we receive is the exact opposite of that and it can be hard to distinguish between what is true and what isn’t. Luckily there are resources that are there to help us tell the difference between what stories are true and what are fake.
It’s unfortunate that many news articles are produced out of false information or just pure lies and what for? The answer is most likely to gain attention which means earning money for them. According to a Harvard article, it suggests “Perhaps because eye-popping headlines in our social media feeds make it easier for us to share content than evaluate or even read it. This creates a viral storm of sound bites without substance.” Another reason may be to persuade people about a certain idea or topic, specifically political related news. The problem is when the public reads these fake news articles not everyone can tell that it is fake, then fake news starts to get spread and it becomes hard to tell between what the real story is and what is made up.
Many fake news stories creates uproars among people. A great example of fake news that was spread and caused many arguments was a short clip-it of a video of these boys that were wearing MAGA hats at a rally, that looked as though they came up to someone and was making fun of their culture. This caused many people on the left side to be enraged. But according to the podcast The Hidden Brain podcast on Screaming into the Void, only a short portion of the video was uploaded and told only a small part of the story. After research was done and the full video was watched, the story seemed to have a whole different meaning to it.
Many consumers don’t check to see if the news they are reading is true or not and the reasons for this can vary, one easy answer is that they don’t care enough and claim to not have enough time to do their own research. An easy and simple way to check if the news they are reading or watching is true, is by using a fact checking website such as https://www.factcheck.org/ or https://www.snopes.com/. Both of these sites are trustworthy and non-bias and will help you conclude if the news you are reading is true or not. If you do have a little spare time on your hands and want to do some personal research, according to another article a tip that was suggested is to “Read multiple stories on the same subject to see what sources are being used and where the differences lie. ”
As a society where everyone is always busy, sometimes it is important to check your information and not jump to conclusions right away. We need to beware of where our news is coming from and what the motives are. You will definitely come across many fake news articles in your lifetime but whether you choose to do some fact checking and get the real information is up to you.
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