Can You Really Resist Fake News?

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With the country in the state that it is in, discussing fake news is vital to comprehending real news.

As everyday Facebookers and cell phone users, we need to utilize the amount of information we have at our fingertips to recognize fake news and educate those around us the dangers of fake news. 

The quicker we learn about bias and what our own individual biases are, the faster we can ask questions and see other's points of views. Thus, beginning to look to more reliable news outlets for quality information. 

For example, a man hearing about women's rights or issues needs to realize that this world and even this country still has a lot of patriarchy going on today. We as people need to be more understanding and see things from the other's perspectives to eliminate bias in situations. 

This ties into fake news, bias is a key player in yellow journalism.

As Professor Quinn mentioned in class, the "Pizzagate Scandal" was ignorance that stemmed from fake news. The Comet Ping Pong story was about a man who went into a children-friendly restaurant and fired off a rifle because he read online that the basement housed children who were being held against their will and forced to commit sexual acts hosted by Hillary Clinton and "powerful Democrats." Now how would the Democratic presidential candidate pull that off without it coming out? I'll tell you, it wouldn't happen. 

NPR touches on fake news using a high school teacher as subject which I have included below. She tried to teach her students that there are ways to fact check and ways to avoid falling victim to this crazy type of journalism which is spreading like wildfire. Fake News Antidote: Teaching Children to Discern Fact and Fiction. This teacher is dedicated to preventing her students from falling victim to fake news.

The key to resisting is be educated. We need to educate our youth and this will bring up a better generation. If America started with middle and high school students and reevaluated their curriculum  as a nation we can slowly stop falling victim to this old tactic journalists have been using that is beginning to make its way back mainstream.

Resisting

To resist fake news is a challenging thing but it has to be done. One way that would be easy is to question everything that is in the news. This would mean that the article that you just read about whatever, you should look it up and see if the information the news gave you is correct. This requires more work but it also helps with hearing from other source because it is most likely that you'll find more information that was not given in the article.

The Washington post did a review on The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI’ by Betty Medsger. This book is about anti-war activists going against the FBI because they believed that they were manipulating the activist groups during the time of the Vietnam War. This is an example of questioning authority and the news. Not condoning burglarizing the media to learn the truth but using this an example of how these activists broke into the FBI and found proof that they were manipulating the activists.

Another way to resist fake news is to go to only a reputable news organization but with any news outdate that you go to will have some bias that's why it's also important to go to more than one reputable organization. There is valuable information in almost every news report but one can't get to attached to one point of view and have an unobstructed view so that there is little bias in the end.

It's hard to avoid fake news but it also serves a purpose that gives an out of the box view if it's about the something the author researched and didn't just pull it out of the air.

Can One Actually Resist Fake News?

The internet provides readers with a lot of information but it is up to the reader to determine whether it is fake or the truth. Fake news is not so distinct that it can be easily detected, but readers have to be vigilant in the news they believe and react towards. There is a lot of trending news on our social media platforms, but which of them is authentic? These fake news are sugarcoated and titled in a manner that is persuasive and seductive enough to catch the attention of readers. Although readers may not be able to avoid reading these news but how does one resist believing these false facts?

Google, Facebook, and Twitter have set up a plugin that are working to block out all these fake news websites but we can't always trust them to get the work because that is a great load of work. There are thousands of these websites and it will take time to eradicate all of them.

Source: CNN

The first step is to double check the URL from which you are reading the news. These websites creators are so smart that they use URL that are very similar to these trusted news websites. They make the news look real to the extent that readers will likely believe it. It is the duty of readers to double check the URL and if possible copy and paste into a Google search and verify the website.

Readers can also resist fake news by checking other trusted news sources if the article has been published by them. If it comes out that it was just the website that published the story, it is likely to be false and should not be trusted.


The photos in the articles might seem unrealistic or photo-shopped. In this case, drag and drop the photo into Google images and it will identify the source. Readers should be careful as writers can edit pictures to suit the article. The picture might be old but they can edit it to conform to a current situation.

Readers can install a Google extension to detect fake news. This will block all fake news sources from search results. It is very important that readers verify the sources of the information as well as the identity of the writer and the organization as a whole.

It is very necessary that readers verify news before they share on their social media pages like Facebook and Twitter. People believe the information you send across depending on your status. Save yourself by not spreading fake news.

When it comes to eradicating fake news, it is a gradual process but readers can save themselves by not heeding to any news they see on the web but acting towards only the true and verified news.

Resisting Fake News

Fake News is the means by which people make a living. Others also publish fake news in search of attention for themselves. According to Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., some people crave for attention through the publication of fake news. The fake news channel could range from the news on TV, the newspapers, magazines, Facebook, Instagram and so on. In order for readers to resist fake news, questions like, who wrote the article, what are the evidence that support the claims made in the article and also are there any other sources that can add to the claims made in the article? Parker Ward of Dallas County Community College District in an article "Fake News and How to Avoid it"says, one has to look at the source, check the wording of the headlines and also see if there are any major flaws.
Asking about who wrote an article establishes the credibility of the news provided. Once the author is known, the reader can then figure out if the news is true of fake. Credible authors will provide their credentials and also the sources of their research in the article and sometimes provide a link through which to contact them. The authenticity of the news can be confirmed if the credibility is established.
Evidence to support a claim made in an article should also be considered in trying to resist fake news.  Any real news will have an evidence that would support the claims the writer made in the article. Supporting a claim with an evidence confirms to the reader the information in the article can be taken as real or whole truth. If there are no evidence that would support the claims, ten there is a red flag to that article.
Wynne Davis, a digital news intern of Public News Radio (NPR) says one should also look and consider the domain of the URL of the article. He said any authentic site owns their domain and it is easily identified. He went on further to say that any website with .com.co should be of a concern to the reader.
When these measures are put into play and used as guidelines by readers, there would less incidence of believing what are put there in the news that are totally far from the truth. One should not waste the time of reading these fake news if there are evidence to prove the news source. In keeping these strategies and others, which were not mentioned in this blog into consideration, making the real news from the fake wouldn't be far fetched.

The Fake News

As we move forward as a generation of people I don’t think that fake news is going to go anywhere it will just grow and spread to more media outlets till it’s everywhere. It doesn’t help that almost anything anyone says will be taken out of context and out of that will rise a fake news story. If we want to make it political it doesn’t help that the left side hates the right and the right hates the left, and in this death spiral of both sides trying to kill the other we are showered with fake news any time you turn on your TV.

To show an example you have CNN who is mainly fighting for the left and then Fox News who mainly fights for the right, and as long as both of these sides hate each other then we will never get rid of fake news. In a perfect world people would be able to listen to each other and hear out what the other side has to say, but instead of that we have people going to the streets protesting and attacking other fellow Americans because they don’t agree with them. I found a video that I think shows it perfectly and of this kind of media fake news grows and becomes more dangerous.

I know that it’ll be impossible to have any two sides agree on one thing in this day and age but that doesn’t mean you start making all these false news story to try and beat them down. Both sides of the political spectrum are at a point in which they will never stop telling lies about each other, and if it keeps going like this like I said earlier fake news will soon be everywhere no matter where you go.

How does one resist fake news?

It is not too hard if you think about it. really all that has to be done to avoid fake news is fact check stories you read. Among this way, there are other ways to avoid fake news, which I have complied from a few websites:

• http://www.factcheck.org/2016/11/how-to-spot-fake-news/    A reliable list of ways to detect fake news, with good examples
• http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/12/05/503581220/fake-or-real-how-to-self-check-the-news-and-get-the-facts  Good list of ways to detect fake news   
•        http://www.ifla.org/publications/node/11174  Instead of listing ways of detecting fake news, they give you a picture.

These websites have compiled a good list of things to do to avoid fake news or at least spot it beforehand.

1. read beyond the title, you can learn a lot more from reading what the article has to say
2. consider the source, investigate the website, its mission, and its contact info
3. check the author, search the author on google to see what else they are credited with
4. check the sources the story uses
5. make sure the author is not trying to get a rise out of people or just simply using satire
6. make sure your own biases are not affecting your judgement
7. consult experts, like fact checking websites such as FactCheck.org, Snopes.com, the Washington Post Fact Checker and PolitiFact.com.

It really is simple on how to avoid or at least spot it before you invest your time in it. You could even fact check the stories yourself. Anything you can do to stop the spread of fake news, you should do so the real news can spread more than fake news.

Yellow Journalism

Yellow Journalism rising on social media have been going on for a while now. There a lot of fake news on social media, a lot of writers just make them up because they earn money or want money. Facebook and Twitter is one of the leading social media where writers post fake news to get through their audience. Fake news is everywhere which is crazy because it’s giving the audience false information of what’s going on in the world today. 

Writers use aggressive words and symbols, some examples are LIAR, !!!! to get readers attention. When readers see these words, it gets their attention and they open the page and read the fake news. When writers write fake news about a politician for example President Trump and if the reader don’t like President Trump they will believe everything that the news article says. Sometimes they use quality information to support the fake news, readers easily fall for this

ObamaSigns Executive Order Banning The Pledge Of Allegiance In Schools Nationwide

The topic was ridiculous; but the author did a good job on providing quality backup information which they used to support the topic. The writer highlighted the topic with black font color and capitalized all the words to draw attention. The article talks about how Obama has taken things too far and signed a bill to ban schools from saying the pledge of Allegiance. Reading the comment was hilarious because people really believed this article and one person who commented said “OMG what is wrong with saying the pledge. It did not hurt anyone for over 50 years. This country is being destroyed from within. Be careful what you wish for” (Rego). It’s funny because this person actually believes this article.

Reading the article about Yellow Journalism shows how Wade and Goldman make fake news and post it on their website and they make money from it. They sit on the couch post fake news and just watch people view it and they get their paycheck at the end of the month. They know what they are doing is not good so they got a lawyer in case someone tries to sue the over a fake news post.

This website was taken down after a few weeks, the whole website is not available now and it’s really funny because why will you take down a “real” news website. Clamming it’s legit website when though the readers commented under articles showing the website was giving out fake information.