The Dangers and Side Effects of Fake News

Vince Damico

damicov12@ohio.edu

 

Citizens expect the facts when reading the news and journalists are expected to be truthful about whatever it may be they're writing about. When journalists violate their duty of truth and honesty for their readers we get fake news. Fake news is a serious dilemma today and we must work together to defeat fake news.

The most famous, or infamous if you will, fake news story was The War of the Worlds radio broadcast on October 30, 1938. The broadcast famously said that New Jersey was under attack from extraterrestrials which set the country into a panic. The station revealed the next morning that the story about the invasion was completely fabricated but this is not the case with fake news in modern day. When fake news is circulated today there is no effort to dispel the story as a hoax by whoever put the story out which creates a very dangerous environment. 

A more modern example of a fake news story exploding was the Pizzagate story that went viral around the time of the 2016 Presidential Election. It was alleged Hillary Clinton and other prominent members of the Democratic Party were running a child and human trafficking ring out of Comet Ping Pong, a pizzeria in Washington, D.C.. 

Picture source: Comet Ping Pong, Michael S. Williamson, The Washington Post

 

Angry social media posts and threats on the phone eventually evolved into Edgar Maddison Welch entering the pizza shop with an AR-15 ready to free the children being held captive. Nobody was hurt during the encounter, but it raised some eyebrows as to how dangerous fake news can be in our current climate. 

It is a duty of all citizens and journalists alike to learn how to spot and call out fake news stories before they go viral and cause irreparable damage. This article on how to spot fake news by factcheck.org lists out many strategies to help identify fake news stories. If we as society can take the time to check multiple sources before taking what we're reading as fact we can help stop the spread of fake news. 

Trust in the media is already low as it is and if stories such as the Pizzagate story, or other fake news, continue to run rampant through our society it will become increasingly more difficult for informed citizens to stay informed. On the flip side of the coin, as people choose to ignore the news because they believe it is untrustworthy it will become even more difficult for journalists to keep citizens in the know. If journalists can't be trusted to give the facts then how will citizens get the facts? The integrity of the industry is in peril and we must respond accordingly.