Web Analysis Post #2 Fake News
Briana Reed
It is very easy to get a stream of fake news circulating in the world nowadays. Though social media has made it much more convenient for us to know what’s happening in the world, it has also made it easier for people to exchange real information and swap it out for the information they want to be true based on their own preconceived notions, thoughts, opinions, beliefs and values. Sometimes fake news can be easily spread on accident, but times it is definitely on purpose.
For example, someone can say a situation happened in Kansas City, Kansas when really it happened in Kansas City, Missouri. That is a common mistake people make all the time. People believe that everything on social media is true. How or why we’ve automatically put so much trust in social media and the people behind the posts, I’m not sure.
However, we have and now we are too lazy to fact check. We know people falsify information, yet we do not take the time out to make sure we are spreading real news instead of fake news. Why is that?
Fake news is always being spread on purpose. People do this to try and get you on their side of what they believe. This happens a lot with politics, religion and even topics that are not viewed as significant. Is it because people crave to be right or to feel they are not the only ones who think a certain way?
An example of this is below with the Ku Klux Klan holding a Trump Pence sign during a march. Now, this image is falsified and the real image is really the Ku Klux Klan holding a banner that says “ Fraternal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan”. Why would someone change this image?
I would argue that someone who is not a fan of the Ku Klux Klan or of Donald Trump wanted to make it apparent that these persons are bad for many reasons. There are many things wrong with the Ku Klux Klan and with Donald Trump, but with that there are the same amount if not more reasons as to why people like the Ku Klux Klan.
Fake news is all about who can spread the biggest story making it the most believable the quickest. Social media makes the quick aspect the easiest to maintain, but when it comes to making the story believable, an individual’s reliability and trustworthiness is in question. Most of the time unfortunately, we trust very easily with the reposting of a tweet or facebook post.
