Fake News Epidemic

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In recent years, the term "fake news" has been used a lot. But, what is it? Fake News is news that is not true – pretty self explanatory, right? According to webwise's article on the topic, their definition is: "Fake news is news, stories or hoaxes created to deliberately misinform or deceive readers."

The rise of the internet and social media platforms has played a big role in the rise of fake news. From my personal experience, I know how easy it is to share a post on Facebook just because it looks interesting and sounds true. However, before sharing, we need to look at where it is coming from and do a little more research on the topic.

There are plenty of satire and fake news websites where anyone can post a story – that does not make them true though. Some website URLs are obviously not real news sites but some might seem legit so it can be tricky when trying to see if the news article is true or not.

One satirical website that often gets a lot of people is the Onion. Nothing posted on that site should be considered news... it is strictly satire and made up. The Onion is meant to be entertaining and funny.

This is a growing problem. What news or posts can we trust on social media? How we can we stop the spread of fake news? These are constant questions that journalists are asked in todays world.

As a a young journalist, we are taught it is our responsibility to share only verified and factual news. We are trained to do extensive research and double check back with our sources. With the internet, everyone think they are a journalist so they post whatever they want – without checking the facts.

(Side bar: just because there is an article that you do not like, does not make it fake news – much like the president sometimes seems to think.)

Some other types of fake news include bias, clickbait, and or misleading headlines.

Bias is something that journalists are trained not to have; but, unfortunately, it still happens. This is when the journalists opinion is put into their writing and it does not always give all the facts. Sometimes, it just gives the facts that back up their views on the topic. This can be bad because others with the same views will gravitate to these articles and will not learn anything new because the writer only shared part of the story.

Clickbait is both good and bad. When it comes to fake news however, it is bad. These stories are made to gain more traffic on the site and when there is more traffic, there are usually more advertisers which means more money. Journalists want their headlines to be intriguing enough to grab a viewers attention, but it should not be fabricated.

Lastly, the final type I'll discuss is misleading headlines. An article can be ruined by a false headline. This is particularly dangerous on social media where the headlines and a short description are what is shared on news feeds. Some people only ready that part before sharing the post and thus, fake news is spread.

So, all this is to say that as journalists, we need to work harder to help get rid of fake news and produce accurate and factual news stories. As consumers of news, we need to also work harder and be more diligent when sharing news on social media.