Fake Journalism: Is there a cure?

Rachel O'Morrow
rm119414@ohio.edu

Last year brought many false news stories into the media and many more followers of news. The 2016 presidential campaign opened the gates for misleading headlines and unrealistic stories more so than ever before. According to Buzzfeed, fake news generated more engagement on Facebook than top stories from major news outlets, such as NBC News and The New York Times during the last few months of the presidential campaign. In fact, over one million more engagements were generated with fake news content than mainstream news content. This creates a large population of people who become ill-informed of real information of the world that's going on around them.

So, why is there higher engagement with fake news?

In terms of the 2016 presidential campaign, fake news that either was pro-Trump or anti-Clinton was engaged with more. Leading up to the election it seemed more uncommon and 'scandalous' to be a Trump supporter, so that can be a factor as to why people wanted to share more of those fake news stories in support of Trump. Fake news stories are formed off of existing beliefs from the American public, which makes a story more appealing and biased to one's own opinions. Simply reading a headline that seems like it supports one's beliefs triggers it to be shared without reading the story. Clearly these stories are not fact based and did not ethically balance two sides of a story. Basically, if you see something that relates to you, you're more likely to engage with it when compared to a news story that doesn't appeal to your beliefs and life.

Is there a way to stop fake news?

In my opinion fake news can't be stopped. A New York Times writer says, "The cure for fake journalism is an overwhelming dose of good journalism." This statement is true, yet it can't stop all bad journalism from making its way into the American public. The good news is that editors, reporters, and publishers all have the choice to be ethical. Like the New York Times writer said, good journalism means to check facts, accurately source information, and create the story solely for informing the public of truth. If journalists continue to conduct ethical reporting, eventually the spread of fake news will decrease. Similar to John Milton's philosophy, the public will eventually find truth in falsehood. In other words, it is up to an individual to believe what they want to believe from the media.

                                                            Video from YouTube.com

What's next?

Since the 2016 presidential campaign was a large reason for creating and spreading fake news, some believe that it will decrease within the next year. Journalists and news platforms have the power and responsibility to create truth and get those stories to the public, but the public has responsibility too. They can either choose to find the truth in news or continue to share fake news just because it has thousands of shares on social media. I would consider reading an article before you share it, checking to see if it's from a reliable source and deciding if sharing the story would do more harm than good.

Overall, we all have the choice to create truth and share truth with others. It's up to us to take action against fake news.