Fake News the Epidemic - Essay Example

Although detail news still touches many people, fake news or water down news is a growing epidemic in European Countries. There are many news stations, websites, and newspapers that given accurate up to date or current information or stories about the world to local news. Even through, this is true there many fake or falsified news post online in the forms of articles or social media posting. Many people cannot determine the difference between fake news or traditional news mainly because they do not know the heterogeneity of the two. The news is the presentation of a report a recent or news events in a newspaper or other periodical or on radio or television. Basically, in opinion news is the real or accurate information about the event in societies. For example, local weather news stations are what would be called real news because really can't lie about the weather. Another example of real news would be nature disaster that happens around the world. There has been a call for a state of natural disaster to be declared in the parts of New Caledonia worst hit by Cyclone Cook on Monday (Call for state of natural disaster in New Caledonia, April 2017). In early March, unprecedented rainfall brought extreme flooding to Peru, leaving 94 dead and almost a quarter of a million without homes so far (Delaney Chambers, April 2, 2017). Another form of News can describe in sports. "Jimmy Butler scored 22 points, Rajon Rondo finished one rebound shy of a triple-double and the Bulls beat the Boston Celtics 111-97 on Tuesday night to take a 2-0 lead in their series against the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference" (Bulls beat top-seeded Celtics 111-97 to take 2-0 series lead, April 19, 2017). Overall there are many forms real news but fake news is still a growing epidemic in 2017 society. Fake news, or hoax news, refers to false information or propaganda published under the guise of being authentic news (Forrest Stroud, n.d.). In layman terms, the Fake news is information that someone or a group of people decided was accurate information. For example, the "pizzagate" conspiracy theory end in 28-year-old Edgar Welch shooting gun inside of a Washington D.C. pizzeria. The basic of this story was that Edgar Welch found a news article about children being in slaved. Later to found out that "The intel on this wasn't 100 percent" (The Classroom Where Fake News Fails, December 22, 20165:25 AM ET). Fake news can come in the form as a post on any social or political website. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was arrested according to a news website thelastlineofdefense.org. This site stated that Nancy Pelosi was taken out of office in handcuffs (BREAKING: Nancy Pelosi Was Just Taken From Her Office In Handcuffs n.d.). This does not make sense because Pelosi was at a press conference on March 13, 2017, in Washington D.C. in response to the Congressional Budget Office's report. Also, she attended a town hall meeting in San Francisco on March 25, 2017. In addition, one day before the town hall meeting she attended in a press conference on March 24, 2017, in Washington D.C. (Chris Nichols, Sunday, April 2nd, 2017 at 6:00 a.m.). Some news websites define fake news in a term "Pants on Fire". Pants on Fire is a statement that is not accurate and makes a ridiculous claim (Chris Nichols, Sunday, April 2nd, 2017 at 6:00 a.m.). Thinking back now Fake news is in essence made up facts of information. They hold no weight when they are thoroughly dissected by way of fact checking. Fake news is a growing problem in the 2017 world and without being able to properly perceive it. People will never be able to know the difference between the two. Understanding or having a guideline to what real news is will help distinguish between the two. According Jacel Edgar in her article "How to tell the difference between fake news vs. real news" she explains three strategies to decipher between real and fake news. First Edgar state to consider your source. Always check the URL, publication, and look Legal section. Second Edgar says to "Dig into the details". She states to look closely at all detail information and make sure not to only look at the title. She states most people only look at the title of an article or bold 25 front comic san headline about a so-called crisis, incident, epidemic, and natural disaster happening. The last step is to check for multiple sources because most mainstream news stations have a breaking news team. If that team is not writing about the same thing as another news station's breaking news team, then most likely it is a fake story. She says to always compare news stations to each other to get different viewpoints of a story Jacel Egan, January 12, 2017). The overall fake news current issue for this world so more example needs to drive this point home. A very reputable honest website post an article stating the Malia Obama was expelled from Harvard. This site is TheNewYorkEvening.com. The article explain is that she was caught in a local Hotel vaping marijuana and she expelled for being caught in the action because Harvard has a very no drug policy (NY Evening. April 10, 2017). Now understand that the beginning line of this paragraph is sarcasm. This is a fake news site because all these so-called facts are false or just do not make sense. According to Joshua Gillin who wrote the article "Fake story wrong about Malia Obama being expelled from Harvard for marijuana use" points out that this site false. First for stating Malia Obama has been expelled from Harvard. Gillin states "The White House announced in 2016 after she was accepted that Malia Obama would take a gap year before enrolling in the fall of 2017" (Joshua Gillin. Wednesday, April 19th, 2017 at 10:58 a.m). How could she have been expelled from a school or any school that matter with attending? Gillin also points out the fact that site got the names and position wrong. The fake news speaks of a chancellor named Malcolm Little. "Harvard doesn't have a chancellor, it has a president, and her name is Drew Gilpin Faust" stated by Gillin (Joshua Gillin. Wednesday, April 19th, 2017 at 10:58 a.m). From the information Gillin state it is clearly seen that this is without a doubt a fake news website. In Conclusion, Fake news is a problem and something needs to be done. Understand the different between the two people will easy be able to pick false from the true. Read More