Social media serves different purposes for various
categories of people. While some people use these platforms to send important
messages across, others use this media to circulate fake news and make money
out of it. Yellow journalism is taking over the social media. So then how
authentic is the news on our various social media platforms?
Yellow journalists are making huge sums of money by
writing articles with aggressive and violent headlines like “CANT TRUST OBAMA”,
“THE TRUTH IS OUT! The Media Doesn’t Want You To See What Hillary Did After
Losing…”that catch the attention of readers. They write about public figures
and trending issues in their own personal opinion in a creative way to persuade
readers. These writers go contrary to journalism, which was supposed to have brought
out the covered truth. Sometimes they write about factual things, but end up
being biased talking about one aspect of it and ignoring the other. People seem
to believe these articles without checking the credibility.
Wade and Goldman are college graduates who used to
work in a restaurant but are currently yellow journalists who are making much
from writing articles about fake news. They sit in the comfort of their rooms and
post stories on Facebook and watch it circulate. They make money from
advertisements made on their pages. They know the information is not true but of course that is what the people want to see.
Just recently, the Associated Press reported that President Trump's administration wants to use thousands of the National Guard troops to round up illegal immigrants according to an 11 page memo, but Sean Spicer, White House Press Secretary, tweeted that this was not true. This fake news was trending on social media but the President did not have any hand in this issue. Writers post articles on issues that will provoke enemies of a particular group or public figures to react to it and they make money out of that. They are always creating chaos and instability.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2017/02/17/fake-news-about-national-guard-rounding-up-illegal-immigrants-still-trending-on-facebook-n2287409
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2017/02/17/fake-news-about-national-guard-rounding-up-illegal-immigrants-still-trending-on-facebook-n2287409
We are readers can halt their motives by asking credibility questions even before thinking of reading an article. They get away with it because no matter how fake it is, people still read and follow them.
ReplyDeleteOnce people believe that President Trump is against immigrants, any article that comes out concerning this situation, people will willingly hold on to it.
ReplyDeleteSocial media can be used for good and bad depending on how the person uses it. I think yellow journalist are people who only care about making money instead of there audience having something credible to read.
ReplyDeleteAdelaide,
ReplyDeleteIs YJ taking over social media? So that those types of articles are even more popular than pictures of our dogs in Halloween costumes (guilty!) and random political ranting (guilty, too). I find it interesting that at the end of the post, you mention the National Guard/Immigration news. Didn't the President recently say that the NG was discussed, actually? I'd be concerned to trust much of what Spicer has to say, as he's also been accused of exaggerations and lies like the "millions of illegal voters" sentiment that the President had mentioned recently. Check out this link! http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01/24/spicer-digs-in-on-trumps-illegal-voting-claim-as-ryan-distances.html
Very good blog post Adelaide. This post was very academic and I can tell that you did a great job doing research and finding good articles on this topic. I also think that you did a good job including that question in the end of the 1st paragraph. The only changes I would say to make is to split up the paragraphs. Paragraph 2&3 could be split up into a couple other paragraphs to make this post just a little longer.
ReplyDelete