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In today’s day and age, telling the truth and avoiding
“fake news” is now more important than ever. Fake news is so important because
to the average consumer, it can look and feel just as real as actual news,
which is why it is so easily spread. As journalists and as average citizens
going about our daily lives, it is important to take the proper precautions
necessary to cut fake news out.
Ethically speaking, fake news is a nightmare to anyone
concerned about the truth. In 2016, “fake news” wasn’t something most people
talked about or concerned themselves with, but in the last couple years that has
changed. Fake news has more media attention now than ever before, and we can
stop its spread if we are vigilant enough to identify it. Some of the biggest
kinds of fake news are clickbait
and propaganda, stories that are made up or biased to generate more web traffic
to one’s site or to sway your opinions by telling lies and stretching truths.
The spread of fake news is so toxic that the American
public’s trust in mass media is now only a mere 32%.
How did it get this bad? One could point a finger at big social media
conglomerates such as Facebook and Twitter, where fake news has taken root and
spread like wildfire. These days it is so easy to share a link to an article
from Fox News or CNN that is simply not true, but if you don’t spot it before
it’s too late or you just don’t care, there’s no telling how many people can be
affected by it.
Another finger could be pointed directly at President
Donald Trump for the rise of fake news in the mass media. When Trump starts
calling every bad opinion about him or everything he doesn’t like “fake news,”
it makes it that much harder for people to spot the real fake news in the media
world. Thankfully, most Americans are able to spot his lies and aren’t easily
influenced by Trump’s spreading of fake news in the media, but some are much
more gullible and are easily fooled by his lies. This isn’t good at all.
When people allow themselves to buy into fake news,
they are contributing exclusively to its toxic spread through the mass media
world. It’s important to give our trust to institutions that have proven time
and time again that they don’t contribute to the spread of fake news. When it
all comes down to it, we as consumers of digital media need to be more vigilant
in our consumption and check the facts before we believe what the media we’re
seeing is telling us. We also need to keep our own biases in check and make
sure our own views and beliefs aren’t affecting our judgment when it comes to
consuming the media in front of us. If we do all this and more, we can and will
cut fake news out of our lives for good.
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