Fighting Fake News
During the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump claimed he could stand on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and shoot someone, and his supporters would still vote for him.
Except . . . he never actually DID said that. It was a very famous example of what we now commonly call fake news.
Since the 2016 presidential election, the term “fake news” has become a common phrase, even sometimes a joke, across the United States and other parts of the world. Many people believe that fake news critically weakened Hillary Clinton’s election campaign. And since becoming president, Donald Trump has often accused news stories that paint him in an unfavorable light of being “fake.” Here, btw takes a look at what some people are doing to combat the spread of these stories, and what you can do to protect yourself from becoming a part of the information breakdown.
Do you recognize fake news on the internet when you see it?
Credit: Hill Street Studios/Blend Images
How Are We Fooled?
You’re a smart person, right? But even so, chances are good you have inadvertently spread a made-up story or two on social media. How? Because the people who create these stories go to great lengths to make them seem believable. They start with an emotional theme that gets people to react–this is why so many fake news stories circulate about candidates for political office or “hot-button” issues such as abortion, other religions, or gun reform. Then they add quotes from so-called “experts,” and photos taken out of context. They also add enough bits of truth to make the story seem really genuine.
Take the opening anecdote about Donald Trump as an example. What makes this the perfect fake news story? To start, Trump himself is a controversial figure who causes people to react with emotion rather than logic. Second, the story seems true because Trump said many things during the election that indicated he felt he was the superior candidate and that people loved him. This story doesn’t seem much different from many of the things Trump actually said in real life. That makes it seem plausible.
I Cannot Tell a Lie…
Fake news, false journalism, conspiracy theories: can we stop the spread of false information when there is so much information out there now? Some authorities believe there is a solution. In fact, French President Emmanuel Macron has suggested writing laws to fight fake news. Other “truth warriors” take to social media to try to argue with people to prove that their stories are false. But neither of these methods are very effective.
Instead, education might be the key. Thomas Huchon is a journalist who has visited 81 schools across France to teach students about fake news. According to Huchon, fake news stories are here for good, as long as there is an Internet to help them spread. So, the best thing that we can do–when faced with a story that might be false–is to teach people how to read critically and how to check the validity of their sources.
Related Link: Check out other coverage from btw that provides more information about Fake News in today’s media.
What YOU Can Do
There are several steps you can take to avoid becoming a part of the fake news cycle.
- Check the authenticity of the article you’re reading by making sure that it lists an author’s name and a date. Then you can use this information to cross-check the information on other sites.
- If an article uses quotes or cites sources, see if you can find and verify those original sources. Be careful of unusual domain names, such as “.com.co.” (For example, abcnews.com.co is a fake news site.)
- Also make sure that the story you’re reading isn’t an old story that’s been recycled.
- Finally, you can visit a fact-checking website such as FactCheck.org or Snopes.com to verify the truth of what you’re reading.