Fake News: A Weapon of Mass Media Destruction

Logan Barragan

lb589416@ohio.edu

 

The term "fake news" is a relatively new phrase that journalists, politicians, pretty much people of all walks of life that consume media, use regularly. It is a very quick, and in many times offensive way of saying you immediately disagree with what a news source is reporting on. Due to the fact that the term fake news has such a negative connotation, it is commonly used as a weapon to discredit journalists and the media companies they work for. 

Picture source: sciencemag.org

To reference British political magazine, the News Statesman, an article written by Peter Wilby delved into how the public is losing trust in the media especially since the development of Covid-19.  A global pandemic is something nobody was planning on dealing with, and finding sources that provide accurate updates on the virus, death rates, and possible vaccines, is nearly impossible. It is both frustrating and scary to not know just how bad things are, how bad they may get, and having no idea of when things will get better.  Media outlets recognize this frustration within the public and so they release made-up information simply to buy them time and keep their ratings up. The article wrote about how news outlet, Health Service Journal, reported testing figures had been boosted to meet a certain target number by including test kits in transit. The Department of Health promptly snapped back at this statement dismantling it entirely. The Health Service Journal had no resources to support this claim, and released it as a way to get involved in the news surrounding Covid-19. 

As mentioned previously,  dubbing things as "fake news" is often used as a political weapon that distracts from legitimate issues so certain politicians can shift their audience into focusing on the topics they believe to matter most. A clip uploaded by the Los Angeles Times, shows Secretary of California Natural Resources Agency, Wade Crawfoot, explaining to President Donald Trump the necessary, immediate action that must be taken to slow the devastating effects of climate change in California. Crawfoot emphasized that if they do not work  together with the science behind climate change,  then the fires, the air quality, the rising temperatures, will only worsen. Trump's reaction to this cry for help simply was, "It will start getting cooler, you just watch," and went then went on to say "I don't think science knows." The 59th presidential election is right around the corner, and what is of top priority for our current President is winning this election. So, it only makes sense that he would dismiss Wade Crawfoot's attempt to aid California by saying the climate will just fix itself. He is in his own way, saying that the science intended to help the suffering state is "fake news." 

The real burden of fake news journalism is that it belittles the hard working journalists who want to do their job to the best of their ability in the most ethical way possible. These days, trusting any news source, no matter how long they've been around or how established the people are that work there, is very difficult. It is becoming increasingly apparent to society that it is up to them to do the research and investigating of high priority topics in an effort to know the truth of what is going on around the world.