Fake News and Effect on Society - Essay Example

Fake News Fake news is news that is misleading or deceiving the public. Fake news happen to be directly connected to media, as media is the main way through which news reach many people. The media therefore has been put to blame for any fake news that rotates throughout the world. Fake news programs have degraded and negatively affected the media and the society at large. The media, televisions especially, have won the attention of people over a large scale, across the universe. This shows the possibility of great harm that would occur from the existence of fake news in this sector. Most programs displayed in the television attract people across all ages, from the youth to the elderly. This is part of the media with the most number of viewers followed by the social media where most youths have taken over and relied on for information. The media therefore is one of the delicate sectors as far as public control is concerned. It is the best way to reach out to the youths and many people. All this has been enhanced and made possible by technology. Advancement of technology has done a great job in convenience of how news spreads and how it gets to the people. The fact that mobile phones can be used to pass news to citizens makes it possible to offer urgent news in the nation within the least time possible. In the relationship between fake news and media, fake news has a negative effect on the media and the culture for a wide array of reasons (Stevens, 2005). First, a lot more than what fake news readily offers is needed by the society. Fake news only makes the viewer aware instead of informing with great depth of knowledge and insight. The fact that a little knowledge is always dangerous makes the transmission of such news harmful to the members of the society in their cultural believes. This affects media in the sense that people will talk about what they hear even without critically thinking about it. Later, the trouble of the public being misled befalls the media. It is judged that the media has played part in the impact, yet it has only played its part by transferring the information as put from the source. With this kind of situation, different social networks may be proven not news worthy. This would mean great harm as far as its business progress is concerned. Other competitors may take over the industry and make it difficult for the network to recover. People would stop relying on the network for information. This would consequently lead to people failing to use the network for transfer of their information, as it may be termed as ineffective. This therefore is part of the many reasons as to why fake news has negative effects on media (Stevens). Second, fake news has great negative effects to the culture in that it creates a misleading attitude in members of the society. When people are fed with fake news, they tend to act in accordance to the news and fail to reason about the information. In most cases, fake news has wrong information about the practices revolving around the society. Without giving it a second thought, many members in the society happen to allow and accommodate the influence the news has against the practice. This leads to abandoning anything to do with the practice. It may as well lead to hatred towards people associated with the activity. These impacts are purely against the right ways of societies. This therefore disrupts peace in the society. Anything that comes between the ways people relate in a culture is said to be unfriendly to the society. When the media is found to be the vessel through which all this harm is created, it is said not to be society friendly and thus fails to be accepted in the society. Fake news therefore creates more trouble to both the culture and media. This at times explains the cause of current changes in the modern society. Fake news has initiated poor dimensions of thinking among society members towards the affected events of life. This influences a wide range of society members as many rely on the modern ways of accessing information about the daily occurrences across the world. However, this is all stimulated by people who blindly follow the news they are fed with. Little information passed to members of society is interpreted in a thousand and one different ways, making it all manufactured and in most cases the change is towards negativity (Zinser, n.d). Third, transmission of fake news has also greatly affected the education systems in different societies. Most teachers also greatly rely on the media for information, which they teach in classes. When this information is poisoned with elements that are misleading, it all creates havoc in schools and learning institutions. This misleads the young generation, who happen to be the hope of the society’s future raising uncertainty in the upcoming generations. This is instead of building the society and continuing with the started but unfinished duties by their elders. This therefore slowly degrades the culture and the effectiveness of the media. The reputation created for downloaded books, articles, other learning material is very much tarnished, and the attitude makes it difficult for other people to trust and believe in such material. This is again great loss to the media as demand for their products and services decreases. This sequentially means that the market for media related services will be poor and there will be decrease in earnings. This does not move the level of technology any further or better. It actually creates a notion that technology is all harmful leading hindered progress. When the public is mostly against embracing the modern technology especially amongst the youth, it makes advancement quite much difficult leading to poor progress even in the works of the media. Fake news therefore results to events that happen to have negative impacts on the media and technology at large. Efforts should be made towards fighting existence of this fake news. Fourth, the link between media and social relationships has been interfered with by fake news. Many people in the society have, in a long time, relied on the media for socializing. Some therefore take advantage of this and create fake images of whom they really are. This brings about misleading activities in the way people socialize. They tend to socialize with others but with wrong expectations as the image displayed to them is fake. It eventually ends up causing disappointments to people. This kind of social relationship havoc ends up creating a bad attitude in people towards relying on the media for socialization. In addition, blame is to the media but in wrong accusations. This is all caused by how people misuse the networks and end up landing themselves to trouble. Victims also contribute to this by over relying on the social networks to such an extent that attracts such disappointments. Lastly, fake news may also mislead the government. Through the act of surveillance, the government relies on social media as a source of information. This is the information that is used in planning how to make developments and to follow up criminal activities. When the available information in the social media happens to be fake, the government makes fake plans and end up being ineffective in serving citizens. The blame from the government is directed to social media. Enemies may also mislead the government by posting fake news in the media. This directs the energy and focus of the government towards fake dimensions. When this happens, the enemies may use it as a trick where they take control of the government’s attention and attack the weak areas. This attack befalls the societies in the nation. On such occasions, the government will again blame the social media for the deception (Zinser, n.d). Without the favor of the government, the market for media in the nation is at a compromising state. This therefore is another negative impact that befalls media and society at large due to transmission of fake news. As a counter argument, it is said that the media makes money by broadcasting the information implying that they are justified to broadcast the information. This takes place without even verifying its authenticity. Although they may be looking for additional funds to keep themselves in the business, it is morally wrong. This is because the good it does is minor as compared to the harm that it costs the society at large. Therefore, making money is not a justification for fake news. In conclusion therefore, fake news is disastrous to the media and culture at large as its impacts are significantly negative. Most changes experienced in the society are for the worse and are caused by the influence of the media, of cause through the transmission of fake news. These effects sometimes are ignored but are very much influential in real sense. In such a situation, students and members of the society are urged to take part actively in digging out the truth behind information that reaches them through the foggy media. This is the only way out. People need to take responsibility in protection of themselves from exploitation by the failing media. The government could also take control maybe by creating new laws that restrict misuse of the media by passing fake news. Lastly, the media itself should play part in investigations that will help in detecting fake information that is gathered and transmitted in sites. Works Cited Stevens, Dana. Thinking Outside the Idiot Box. 2014. Web. 7 May. 2015. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/surfergirl/2005/04/thinkingoutside_the_idiot_box.html Zinser, Jason. The Good, the bad, and the Daily Show. 2007. Web. 7 May. 2015. http://occonline.occ.cccd.edu/online/cmcgaughey/The%20Good%20The%20Bad%20and%20The%20Daily%20Show.pdf Read More