Fake News: Shouldn't We Know Better?

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Devon Stephen
ds708914@ohio.edu

Donald Trump coined the phrase “fake news” during the 2016 presidential election. Americans who once laughed at the term have since realized the reality of the dangers of inaccurate “news” articles and stories being shared online. According to a 2019 Agility PR Solutions Article, a study at MIT found that fake news stories are more than 70% more likely to be retweeted than truthful news. In a world that relies so heavily on social media for work, content creation and sharing, social interaction and information-gathering, that number is seriously concerning.

--> The amount of fake news being shared isn’t just scary for younger generations with their faces locked into their smartphones. On the contrary, a 2018 study by Pew Research Center reported that 68% of American adults said they at least occasionally read news on social media. With so many people getting their news online, the transparency of news organizations has become increasingly more important. Americans deserve to know whether what they’re reading is true, but how much of that responsibility falls upon our own shoulders? To what extent should social media giants like Facebook be blamed for the spread of fake news?

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Infographic from the International

Federation of Library Associations, 2019

--> Participants in a study conducted by two Yale professors were better able to decipher real from fake news in stories that aligned with their own political ideologies (although this was only true for people who preferred Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump), according to an article from NiemanLab. The study found that people fall for fake news or news with “alternative facts” not because of a political or identity-related motivation, but because of a failure to think analytically. That being said, the general ability to discern real from fake news was lower among Trump supporters who participated in the study than it was for those who favored Hillary Clinton.

--> In the last three months of the 2016 presidential campaign, Facebook’s top fake news stories regarding the election had higher levels of engagement than the top stories from reputable news outlets, according to a BuzzFeed News analysis from 2016. The 20 top-performing fake news election stories generated 1,344,000 more shares, reactions and comments on Facebook than the 20 top-performing election stories from news outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post, Huffington Post, and others. The BuzzFeed article describing the analysis includes a statement from a Facebook representative who claims the top stories don’t reflect overall engagement on a platform. According to the spokesman, the fake stories with so much traction only represent a “tiny fraction of the total.”

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But does that mean Facebook isn’t responsible for the increase in engagement among fake news stories?

Despite what the spokesman from Facebook had to say about overall engagement on the platform, social media algorithms do reward posts with high levels of engagement. When fake news stories have such heavy engagement from platform users, it becomes easier for real news stories to get drowned out in all the noise. Now, a debate concerning whether creators of social media algorithms have a responsibility to ensure fake news posts don’t flow as readily across timelines—even with millions of engagements—is taking way.  Americans aren’t completely to blame for the rampant spread of fake news across social media because we can’t entirely choose what comes across our feed. Ultimately, though, we are the ones liking, sharing and commenting on fake news posts gaining the engagements that lead to even more views. So, what do we do?

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At the end of the day, the most productive thing we can do is educate ourselves. We can choose not to share stories from non-reputable sites, even if the headline is intriguing. If we do see a headline or image that sparks our interest in an article, we can use resources like Snopes, Politifact, Fact Check (Washington Post), or other fact checking sites to verify the accuracy of the information we read. In my eyes, when it comes to fake news the important thing to remember is that truth knows no side in politics. Truth isn’t a democrat, nor is she a republican. She is trusting us, though, to shine her light—regardless of how much fake news is floating around Facebook right now.