Fact Checking, Misinformation, Fake News

Kelsey Lauriel
kl343216@ohio.edu


As a society, it is easy to believe things that you read online, in magazines, in newspapers, and hear from people. Whether it is a photoshopped picture or an article that you read, it is important to fact check everything.

The Importance of Fact Checking

In this day, and age there is so much fake news that is circulating around, that the readers don't know what to believe.

According to Visme.com, since 2016, readers have been fact-checking the articles they come across 96% of the time due to so much fake news spreading around. Over 23% of those interviewed admitted to sharing fake news articles.

The Dangers of Misinformation

Misinformation does more than just leave the audience of newspapers and other kinds of articles uninformed. It also ruins the reputation of writers and their subjects.

Some causes of misinformation come from writers giving their opinions on a topic instead of writing the facts about the topic, so what they say is passed off as news instead of an opinion.

2016 survey according to visme.com about fact checking

Unfortunately, politicians are sometimes one of the people who spread the most aspect of fake news if it gives them personal gain. According to thehill.com, politicians are notorious for telling voters what they want to hear, not what they need to hear. 

While social media makes learning about news more convenient and accessible, it also makes it easier to spread fake news. Anyone can post anything that they want to and it is up to the audience to decipher if it is real or fake, and if the audience likes or in some cases doesn't like what they read, they will believe it to be true without fact-checking.  

While an election is coming up during a pandemic, politicians are using the citizens' fear as a way of spreading fake news. It is common for politicians to scare citizens into voting for them. 

Donald Trump is known for tweeting things that can come off as a threat and scare the United States citizens. He is also very against fake news although it has been controversial that he is also guilty of spreading fake news via social media. 

After the shooting of George Floyd when protests were going on around the world he tweeted about the protests and threatened that if the protests did not stop then there would be shooting. 

                                                     Donald Trumps tweet regarding the protests

Misinformation can negatively influence the way an article is perceived, it is important as journalists to honor the truth and giving the audience every side to a story so they can form their own opinion instead of the opinion you want them to form.