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Yellow Journalists are unfortunately the future of social media and reporting. Many people use social media way more than they should, let alone using it as a news source. When someone sees a person they believe to be a credible person who would usually only listen to truthful media share something so far fetched that you have to click on it to believe it. To understand yellow journalism as a new type of journalism and reporting you must first know what it is, understand how to combat it, and know the dangers of it.
According to the article our class reviewed, two men named Paris Wade and Ben Goldman took advantage of America during the months leading up to the election. They would post articles that may have contained facts, but these facts were fabricated with stretched truths and hyperbolic sentences to make their article something people could believe and would be interested in. These two college graduates who worked in a restaurant got tired of working and not doing anything in their career field that applied to their degrees. They started writing an article about North and South Korea and receiving click after click, and $120 after writing a ten minute article, Wade and Goldman realized they wanted to get into yellow journalism. They eventually picked up a Pro-Trump aspect, even though the two admitted to voting for Obama in 2008 and in 2012. For example, the article titled "THE TRUTH IS OUT! The Media Doesn't Want You To See What Hillary Did After Losing..." is an article that could draw Hillary supporters to see what they could be saying about their candidate or even Trump supporters to see the new scandal that surrounds the Clintons.
Whether they report facts and truths, Goldman and Wade know that they just need to provide that shock value to their audience to continue on the path they're on. Yellow Journalism is successful based off of the amount a clicks a website obtains. These "reporters" write exaggerated truths and feed off of the reader's comments and feedback to fuel new articles. Together these men have an Advertising degree and a Business degree, they used these to start a successful business for themselves that they only want to grow into something bigger. Writers like these are potentially the future of fake news, as readers we need to educate ourselves to avoid believing articles such as The Pizzagate Scandal.
The academic readers as we are now can foil their motive of making money out of the fake news. Now we know how to distinguish the real from the fake. I will look for clues whenever there is an article that sounds weird to me. Once I see any of the clues that make it fake, I wouldn't read it. It is that simple. Let's make it happen.
ReplyDeleteWhen people cannot find themselves a job, they try to create job for themselves and earn a living. It is up to readers to be vigilant in the sources they read their news.
ReplyDeleteHi Jeremy,
ReplyDeleteI like the fact that you venture beyond our article on yellow journalism to show it in action with that cover image from the Globe. I wonder, can you also link to the YJ article so readers know which text you're referring to?
You say that Wade and Goldman write exaggerated truths. Can you give an example? And could some of it be considered downright lies? What is news if it's not truth?
I like the example of fake news that you used in your blog post with the picture of Bush on Cocaine in White House! I agree with you on yellow journalists becoming the future to social media.
ReplyDelete