Nowadays, everyone has an opportunity to deliver viral news content using social media and blogs as their outlet, but can we really trust all the news we get?
Whether or not news consumers are getting their news from social media, blogs, or mainstream media networks, the odds are that they need to analyze the information before digesting it as facts.
In reality, any news has a chance of being tainted by fake news sources. With news outlets aggregating from varied sources, sometimes viral news such as the “pizzagate” conspiracy about heinous child sex trafficking at Comet Ping Pong Pizzeria in Washington, D.C. spread and can lead to violence. Fact checking does not always happen immediately because the information is usually believable.
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In the case of Comet Ping Pong Pizzeria, the news was believable leading to folks flocking the pizzeria to investigate the propaganda that resulted in violence and thus disrupting business as usual.
There are several other examples of fake news infiltrating the minds and negatively impacting the actions of news consumers.
When President-elect Trump won the 2016 election, an individual, Eric Tucker, from Texas tweeted photos of parked buses alleging there were busloads of anti-Trump protestors demonstrating in the streets.
Mainstream news organizations caught on to this fake news and reported accordingly. Tucker’s tweet was retweeted more than 16,000 times in two days.
Even President-elect Trump responded with dismay, tweeting that, ‘“Professional protestors, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!’’’
However, folks began to question Tucker’s allegations when they could not make connections with the buses of people and the alleged demonstrations.
Tucker then admitted that he did not see people boarding or exiting the buses, and issued a correction as follows: ‘“I strongly value the truth. There’s a pretty good case those buses were for a conference.”’
After his correction, Tucker was surprised that not many folks retweeted it and that he did not get as many likes and followers as he did when he posted the fake news.
The problem with fake News however, is that it usually only serves the point of view of a few and it sometimes can incite violence and rash decisions.
News consumers need to know the differences between what is real and what is fake in order to make better, informed decisions that will benefit the majority.