What will the future look like?

Although the awareness of fake news has increased recently, people have been creating fake stories since ancient times. For example, ancient people created Greek mythology to help explain what they didn’t know about the universe.  Today, fake news is not just used to explain the unknown, but also used to manipulate the public. However, this too has happened throughout history. For instance, Franklin D. Roosevelt told the nation during a radio address on October 27, 1941, “I have in my possession a secret map, made in Germany by Hitler’s government—by the planners of the New World Order. It is a map of South America as Hitler proposes to reorganize it. The geographical experts of Berlin, however, have ruthlessly obliterated all the existing boundary lines … bringing the whole continent under their domination. This map makes clear the Nazi design not only against South America but against the United States as well.” However, this map was a fake created by British agents whose assignment was to bring the U.S. into Britain’s war which became World War II.

Fortunately, there have always been people who believe in the truth and who are willing to work to identify fake information. Journalists are an example of a group of people committed to investigating and reporting the truth. Although, some question the integrity of journalists, journalism is a profession. Just because someone writes and article does not make the person a journalist. People with degrees in journalism from schools accredited by organizations such as the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC), should be viewed as credible brokers of news. According to the ACEJMC, accreditation ensures journalism schools adhere to educational requirements and standards.

In addition to professional journalists, there are now websites such as Snopes which, according to the site, “began in 1994 by researching urban legends and has since grown into the oldest and largest fact-checking site on the Internet, one widely regarded by journalists, folklorists, and laypersons alike as one of the world’s essential resources.” Snopes fact checks a wide-range of new stories to provide readers with the truth. This website was not created in response to the fake news related to the recent presidential elections, however it according to a guardian article  (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/01/snopes-com-internet-fact-checker-post-truth-david-mikkelson) the web traffic on Snopes increased by 146% in 2016 compared to 2015.

After all, researchers may found a cure for fake news. As they present, it just as vaccines immunize people by exposing them to a weakened version of a virus, psychologists found that type of “psychological vaccine’’ that, as they say, could possible stop the spread of a piece of fake news by exposing people to weakened form of it, according to a report published in Global Challenges. But does it really mean it will help to slow the spread of fake news? Time will tell, time will tell.