The 2016 Presidential election race was controversial for many reasons ranging from voter fraud to Russian involvement and of course the election of a presidential candidate who,in of himself, was a compilation of controversy. Despite the controversy, what was clear was that the outcome of the election, no matter which candidate was elected, would alter the course of America moving forward. This is because the outcome of the election rang in a new era that would directly affect the way Americans understand news in the country as well as American society overall.
The fake news era was conceived out of the events that unraveled during the 2016 Presidential election. Social media , major news sources, and the communication between Americans all contributed largely to the spread and sharing of fake news throughout the election which has seeped into the everyday conversation in American society well after the election. Okay, but what exactly is fake news?
Well, fake news consists of “false stories that appear to be news, spread on the internet or using other media, usually created to influence political views or as a joke” according to the Cambridge Dictionary.
The problem that fake news poses to civic discourse is immense as it provides people with information that is presented as fact in order to manipulate the audience to either alter their political stance on an issue or intensify their already extreme political stance. As touched on in my previous post regarding social media as well as in the Cambridge Dictionary’s definition of fake news, it is spread across media within seconds and often becomes viral in that same amount of time. This way too short of an amount of time to check the sources in which the story came from, the truth of the information in the story, and even to just read and comprehend the full scope of the story if you were to believe it to be true. Obviously this poses a huge threat to the main pillars of civic discourse as it hinders people’s ability of becoming informed without them even knowing. What does that mean? Well, when someone reads a story on Twitter or Facebook that has thousands of shares and likes within minutes of being posted they believe that since it is popular it must be true or someone must have already checked the facts and then read it believing whatever the story is. This is the most dangerous form of being uninformed a person can be. When thousands of people read that same story and then go to discuss it either over social media or in conversation they form a position and opinion on the basis of information that is false but they believe to be true. Therefore, if someone tries to argue the opposite or even to argue that the information is false the person who first presented the information must re-evaluate his entire position he just formulated off the basis of fake news. But rarely do we ever see people change their mind. Instead they accept the false information blindly as fact and then proceed to defend that information and deny those that dare to compromise the integrity of a fake news story. This is the world we currently live in. An era with fake news spreading like wildfire onto the screens of millions of Americans and being hostilely discussed and argued among one another. This is the largest threat to civic discourse our nation currently faces and a threat that people need to be aware of.
So, in order to spot fake news it is vital you consider all of the factors shown in the info graphic as well as cross reference the story with major news sources such as CNN, The New York Time and many other online forms of obtaining ne
ws. It is vital to stay vigilant, when something seems wrong it is important to take the extra time to check it out and make sure everything c
hecks out rather than just sharing or retweeting it and then embarrassing yourself by using the false information in a discussion with others that are informed. Or even worse would be to have a discussion entirely surrounding a fake news story which is often what most discourse in the United States is today. Ultimately, follow the golden rule of fake news that is in the words
of the greatest American comedian with two first names, Jon Stewart, “if you smell something, say something”. If something smells like it is not right, i.e. smells like BS, like it is too good of a story to be true even in the eventful world we live in today well it probably is too good to be true and you should check it. Once, the sources are checked it is your obligation to let others know. If more and more Americans did this, we can salvage civil discourse.
Sources: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/fake-news
https://www.ifla.org/publications/node/11174