Welcome to the blog of Dr. Lisa Burns' Media Studies senior capstone class (3:30 pm section) at Quinnipiac University. If you're looking for the latest on media industry trends and insightful media analysis, you've come to the right place!
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
News Blog 7, Question 2 (March 27th)
What is the role of journalism in
today’s highly partisan political climate and how is so-called “fake news”
impacting the profession? Also, what, if anything, can news media outlets do to
combat the “fake news” stigma?Limit: 9 responses
News media in the United States has undergone somewhat of a credibility crisis throughout the last two or three years. There are a variety of factors responsible for this crisis of credibility: the growing popularity of partisan programming, the divisive 2016 Presidential campaigns of both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, and information overload on social media.
Anybody with access to a computer can post whatever he or she wants, true or fake, on social media. This is why there is such an insurmountable amount of false information on the Internet. A January article from The Associate Press reads, “About 2 in 3 American adults say fabricated news stories cause a great deal of confusion about the basic facts of current affairs, according to a Pew Research Center report in December 2016. The survey found that Republicans and Democrats are about equally likely to say that “fake news” leaves Americans deeply confused about current events. Despite the concern, more than 8 in 10 feel very or somewhat confident that they can recognize news that is fabricated, the survey found” (Kellman and Drew).
One in four Americans visited a fake news site between October 7 and November 14, 2016, leaving some overwhelmed with the massive volume and increasing unreliability of news on the Internet (Meyer). This is why some consumers have placed their trust in seemingly reputable news outlets like Fox News and MSNBC, only to find out that their trusted outlets are “fake” as well, as they all push partisan agendas
Partisan news outlets have long existed in the U.S., the Party Press Era of the late 18th Century even saw political parties financially supporting the news media; there were papers written solely for Federalists, Anti-Federalists, and later Republicans and Whigs (Bulla). It is no surprise that in the contemporary era, people still like their news tailored to support their preconceived political notions rather than challenge them.
Though the term had not yet entered the lexicon, the newspapers of the Party Press Era can be likened to contemporary cable news and commentary networks like Fox News and MSNBC, as they are all their own brands of “fake news”. This type of fake news is not necessarily factually incorrect, but rather, are misleading and indoctrinating. When the President acts outrageously and tweets insults at public figures, Fox News will rationalize the act while MSNBC chastises it. In contrast, during President Obama’s two terms, Fox News would often chastise his actions while MSNBC would glorify them.
This contrast is one of the reasons many consumers now see news media outlets as unreliable. If news media outlets are to combat the “fake news” stigma, they will have to abandon commentary and focus solely on news.
Works Cited
Kellman, Laurie, and Jonathan Drew. “Correction: Trump-One Year-Media Story.” AP News, Associated Press, 18 Jan. 2018, www.apnews.com/c1d5df2ffe2144c2ab75b3dd052632b3/Trust-in-news-media-takes-a-hit-during-Trump-presidency.
Meyer, Robinson. “Why It's Okay to Call It 'Fake News'.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 9 Mar. 2018, www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/03/why-its-okay-to-say-fake-news/555215/?yptr=yahoo.
Bulla, David W. “Party Press Era.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 29 Dec. 2015, www.britannica.com/topic/party-press-era.
News media will never be the same. Since the 2016 election year, there has been an unprecedented shift in the news, making individuals question everything they hear and read. Fake news has become an American crisis and the past few years has turned news into something that has become harder and harder for individuals to decipher regardless of their political alignment. We have entered into a different era of news, in the past news was seen as bipartisan with the exception of certain political news networks. Now everything about the news can be seen as politically based even watching the news at dinner or before bed on broadcast channel can sometimes be questioned. Whether you’re a republican or a democrat you’re going to examine the news… always thinking if there is a political spin on the deliverance of the story, if there was an agenda being pushed, or if the sources are reliable. However according to the Pew Research Center, “Democrats and Republicans, who already tend to place their trust in different news sources and rely on different outlets for political news, now disagree more than ever on a fundamental issue of the news media’s role in society”(Barthel and Mitchell 2017). This is what the world of news media has come to, credible to constantly questioned and more divisive than ever. Buzzfeed even gives out “fake news” quizzes to see if readers are fully informed and not being tricked by the fake headlines they read on Facebook. Because there is such a social media overload, individuals are blindly reading fake news on multiple platforms and not even realizing it. “Fake news” can be extremely influential and extremely dangerous, like the 2016 Pizzagate conspiracy theory. It started with a Facebook post and ended with a shooting. “Welch's arrest was the culmination of an election cycle dominated by fake news – and by attacks on the legitimate press. Several media outlets quickly traced the contours of what became known as Pizzagate: The claim that Hillary Clinton was a pedophile started in a Facebook post, spread to Twitter and then went viral with the help of far-right platforms like Breitbart and Info-Wars” (Robb 2017).
News outlets are trying to come up with innovative ways to combat fake news and gain their trust back. Like using Paywalls, but that is coming with a lot of backlash. Paywalls have been around for a while but that was for higher end publications like The Wall Street Journal but now they want to implement it on publications that were always free, basically forcing people to pay for the news. This brings up the issue of who can afford a subscription, and if someone can’t, will they just be forced to have to read free “fake news”? “While subscriptions are inexpensive and don’t require a tremendous amount of wealth, they do require a person to have some money, and people who can’t afford food or a place to live can’t afford to pay for journalism. To suggest they either don’t exist or that they aren’t entitled to high-quality journalism is cruel and unnecessary”(Bryant 2018). The “fake news” rhetoric has turned news on its head and has caused a frenzy. The “fake news” epidemic needs to be addressed but it may be years before news gets creditability back.
Robb, Amanda. “Pizzagate: Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal.” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 16 Nov. 2017, www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/pizzagate-anatomy-of-a-fake-news-scandal-w511904.
Barthel , Michael, and Amy Mitchell . “American Attitudes About the News Media Deeply Divided Along Partisan Lines .” Pew Research Center , 10 May 2017, pp. 1–40 ., quinnipiac.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-2454763-dt-content-rid-20167267_1/courses/MSS49502_18SP/American%20Attitudes%20About%20the%20News%20Media%20Deeply%20Divided%20Along%20Partisan%20Lines.pdf.
Journalism is struggling in the Trump era. According to the Associated Press, when consumers wants to get the news, they no longer turn on the TV. They turn to other medias, claiming that the news on TV is too biased. Even those who are affiliated with one of the two most prominent political parties have lost faith in the news, no matter which outlet it comes from. There is so much conflicting information that is broadcasted, consumers don’t know which is accurate and swear off news as we know it. Now more than ever accurate and reliable journalism is necessary, but it seems to be nowhere to be found. According to the staff at The Miami Hurricane, the most important part of journalism is to you show your community ways it can help and tell the stories that matter. With the American people at a wider political divide than any in recent memory and world leaders threatening nuclear war, constantly receiving “fake news” is not only irritating for the average consumer, but also dangerous. “Fake news” is defined by The Atlantic as “content that is being put out there that has all the dressings of something that looks legitimate. It’s not just something that is false—it’s something that is manufactured to hide the fact that it is false.” Just like any dangerous or difficult profession, there are two types of people. There are the ones who are deterred by the struggles, acknowledging that there are big problems but believing that they can’t fix it. Then there are the ones who are encouraged by all the negativity and want to make a difference. So as far as the impact on the profession itself, I don’t think there will be much of a change. The only way news outlets can combat fake news is if they put out the opposite: real news. They need to earn back consumers’ trust and it isn’t something that is going to come easily. It’s not just a stigma, it’s something we actually see on a day-to-day basis. At this point, the only way to fix it is to make changes at the executive level and down. Once consumers, especially those who have sworn off of major media outlets, see the changes being implemented they might give it another try.
Meyer, Robinson. "Why It’s Okay to Call It ‘Fake News,’" The Atlantic 9 March 2018. Web. Kellman, Laurie and Jonathan Drew. "Trust in News Media Takes a Hit During Trump Presidency," Associated Press 15 Jan. 2018. Web. Editorial Staff. “An open letter to Marjory Stoneman Douglas’ student journalists,” The Miami Hurricane 26 Mar. 2018. Web.
Journalism has evidently become the main industry effected by this brave new world of “fake news.” Fake news is “false stories that appear to be news, spread on the internet or using other media, usually created to influence political views or as a joke" (Cambridge Dictionary). Donald Trump has been accusing journalists of reporting inaccuracies since the primaries in 2016 and has yet to stop. Stephanie Sugars cataloged 990 of Trump’s tweets during the summer of 2017. Sugars categorized as “insults,” “denigrate media,” “media bias,” “accusation of false reporting,” “call for firing, boycotting, or there action against a journalist, a news organization, or the media in general,” “leaks and leakers,” and “threats.” Trump’s tweets targeted journalists, Megyn Kelly and Joe Scarborough. These two have been targeting for how the speak about Trump in the media and criticizing his mental stability (Peters). If 990 tweets fit into these hateful categories during one summer, how many more have there been?
In a world where Trump is constantly tearing down the media with his tweets and words, any person would be concerned about legitimacy from any media they receive. “There’s been no love for the media for decades. The percentage expressing a great deal of confidence in the press has eroded from a high of 28 percent in 1976 to just 8 percent in 2016, according the General Social Survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago” ( Drew, Kellman). Distrust for the media has been a trend for decades, Trump simply capitalized on it. The American public have not been believing what they have been reading and Trump is endorsing that belief willingly with a smorgasbord of people following him. “When Trump labels something “fake news,” ″I just have started assuming ... whatever he’s talking about must be true,” said 46-year-old Joseph Murray” (Drew, Kellman). As more people fall in line with what Trump says, more people are completely desensitized to media and journalists by simply calling it “fake news.”
Journalism’s role has been forced to change because of the political and social climate that has been elevated due to Trumps comments and attitude. Journalists Thomas Hughes and Jodie Ginsberg claim that journalism is being scrutinized like never before. Other journalists have been detained at borders, had their equipment stolen and been faced with charges for being present at protests like Black Lives Matter and the Dakota Access Pipeline (Ginsberg, Hughes). As fake news and harassment circles around journalism, the answer might be to pick quieter stories. It might be to focus on nicer, safer topics but then journalists would be turning their backs on their profession. In this political and social climate, it is time to write about controversy and force it to be heard by sharing it in every way possible. Facebook is no longer aiding news organizations by making them a priority on their news feeds so, maybe it is time to focus on different outlets or conglomerating and making an app that anyone can download to find their news (Topolsky). Niches are important for television and movies; niches are important for news organizations, too.
“Fake News.” Cambridge Dictionary, Cambridge University Press, dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/fake-news.
Hughes, Thomas, and Jodie Ginsberg. “The Biggest Risk to American Journalism Isn't Posed by Trump | Thomas Hughes and Jodie Ginberg.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 19 Jan. 2018, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/19/american-journalism-fake-news-trump.
Kellman, Laurie, and Jonathan Drew. “Correction: Trump-One Year-Media Story.” AP News, Associated Press, 15 Jan. 2018, www.apnews.com/c1d5df2ffe2144c2ab75b3dd052632b3/Trust-in-news-media-takes-a-hit-during-Trump-presidency.
Peters, Jonathan. “Trump Twitter Spreadsheet Tracks ‘a Perpetual Campaign against the Press.’” Columbia Journalism Review, 21 Dec. 2017, www.cjr.org/united_states_project/trump-twitter-spreadsheet-press-attacks.php.
Topolsky, Joshua. “Facebook Killing News Is the Best Thing That Ever Happened to News.” The Outline, The Outline, 15 Jan. 2018, theoutline.com/post/2936/facebook-news-feed-changes-are-actually-good-for-news?zd=8.
The role of journalism and news media has drastically shifted over the past couple of years. Since the presidential election in 2016, news has become more partisan than ever before. Both candidates were polarizing individuals whom were on complete opposite sides of the political spectrum. It was practically the equivalent to watching a reality television show. Everything that was said or reported was blown up to the whole world. With all the technological advancements, fake news is at an all time high. An article from Brookings states, "Journalism is in a state of considerable flux. New digital platforms have unleashed innovative journalistic practices that enable novel forms of communication and greater global reach than at any point in human history” (West.) Today, anybody can be a journalist. You can film or write anything, put it up on the Internet, and just like that you may have what the world calls “fake news.” People get their news from all over in today’s day and age. There are so many different conflicting stories as well as coverage options that people don’t know what to believe or where to go for good information. An article from the Associated Press states, “But a year into Donald Trump’s fact-bending, media-bashing presidency, Americans are increasingly confused about who can be trusted to tell them reliably what their government and their commander in chief are doing” (Kellman and Drew.) With this increasing issue, journalism is taking a huge hit. When you have the President of your country calling out the major news outlets saying that everything that they put out is “fake news” you have a big problem. You now have people who are listening to what the President says about the news because at the end of the day he is supposed to be the most credible person in the country. This then makes most media news outlets seem not credible at all when since the dawn of time they were the ones that everybody trusted the most in regards to credibility. With some of the big news media outlets being associated with fake news, people are now turning to other sources for their news. Lots of these sources come from all over, aren’t credible, and are in fact very much so completely “fake news.” An article from the Atlantic reads, “One in four Americans visited a fake-news website between October 7 and November 14, 2016, according to a recent study from researchers at Princeton University, Dartmouth College, and the University of Exeter. And a massive study released this week from media scientists at MIT found that falsehoods travel faster, further, and deeper than accurate information on Twitter” (Meyer.) Now that everybody has the ability to be a journalist on the web, people are actually reading what they are saying…real or not. On twitter specifically, “fake news” tends to blow up since it is made to be juicy, controversial, and a very strong take. The fact that it has thousands of likes, retweets, and comments is all the validation people need to believe that it is real.
Kellman, L., & Drew, J. (2018, January 18). Correction: Trump-One Year-Media story. Retrieved March 27, 2018, from https://www.apnews.com/c1d5df2ffe2144c2ab75b3dd052632b3/Trust-in-news-media-takes-a-hit-during-Trump-presidency
Meyer, R. (2018, March 09). Why It's Okay to Call It 'Fake News'. Retrieved March 27, 2018, from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/03/why-its-okay-to-say-fake-news/555215/?yptr=yahoo
West, D. M. (2017, December 18). How to combat fake news and disinformation. Retrieved March 27, 2018, from https://www.brookings.edu/research/how-to-combat-fake-news-and-disinformation/
Journalism is a fast shifting profession, from receiving news from the telegraph to the radio to television to social media, etc. Journalism is constantly growing as society advances. It was always the public's right to know what is going on. Just recently, journalists were in luck because there was so much to say about politics these past few years. The role of journalism in these cases is to simply spit out the facts. Yes, certain companies are biased, but there are sources that are not. Now a days, it is easier for anyone to become a journalist. There are so many mobile tools and with news integrating with social media, it has never been easier being a reporter. But with the increase in at-home reporters, this results in “fake news.” A lot of times, reporters want to be the first ones to put out news so this again, results in inaccurate information. Variety wrote an article titled Journalists Raise Concerns About ‘Fake News’ Rhetoric After Man’s Arrest for Threats to CNN. In this article, author Ted Johnson mentions how many journalists have been getting threats. Huge companies like CNN receive threats for putting our “fake news.”
According to the News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2017 article written by Elisa Shearer and Jeffrey Gottfried, two thirds of U.S. adults get their news from social media. This tells a lot about our news today. “Not only have Americans grown somewhat in their use of social media for news overall, but now they are more likely than ever to get news from multiple social media sites. About one quarter of all U.S. adults (26%) get news from two or more of these sites, up from 18% in 2016 and 15% in 2013.” Pew Research Center says. With the easy access of news on social media, this does not account of accuracy. A lot of times when you see news on the internet, it will not be 100% true, so one must fact check. Robinson Meyer wrote an article for The Atlantic where he says, “Fake news refers to a distinct phenomenon with a specific name, they say, and we should just use that name (fake news) to talk about that problem (fake news).“We can’t shy away from phrases because they’ve been somehow weaponized. We have to stick to our guns and say there is a real phenomenon here,” said David Lazer, one of the authors of the essay and a professor of political science and computer science at Northeastern University.” That being said, news channels will probably still be accused of putting out “fake news,” but for them to get better at this stigma, they would just have to really fact check their news and sources.
Johnson, Ted. “Journalists Raise Concerns About ‘Fake News’ Rhetoric After Man’s Arrest for Threats to CNN.” Variety. 23 January 2018. http://variety.com/2018/politics/news/trump-fake-news-cnn-1202673974/
Shearer, Elisa and Gottfried Jeffrey. “News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2017.” Pew Research Center. 7 September 2017.
Meyer, Robinson. “Why It's Okay to Call It 'Fake News'.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 9 Mar. 2018 www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/03/why-its-okay-to-say-fake-news/555215/?yptr=yahoo.
The role of journalism has changed significantly in the last two years. We know what the original idea of journalism was: to report unbiased events to the community to keep people informed. However, because of social media and certain public figures, the name of journalism has been tarnished.
Today, journalism seems to be there for whatever “side” you’re on. For most people, the news channel you watch reflects what political party you watch. However, the problem is that journalism is supposed to be unbiased. According to the Pew Research Center, “89% of democrats say news media criticism keeps leaders in line” (Barthel and Mitchell). Due to the election, journalism has become extremely biased therefore no one is ever getting the full story.
Another issue we’ve been seeing is the idea of “fake news”, a term coined by none other than the President himself. Personally, I believe this started because certain news outlets were reporting “untrue” stories about the President during the election. However, anyone with a computer could fact check the stories and determine if they were true or not. Due to the sensitive nature of our Presidents ego, when there was a major story (that would turn out to be true), he would call “fake news”, almost like calling wolf. According to the Associated Press, “As president, he (Trump) regularly complains about his news coverage and has attacked news outlets and journalists as “failing” and “fake news” (Kellmen and Drew). To me, it just sounds like he can’t handle criticism and the fact that most of what he says is insane. He’s called “fake news” so many times that people genuinely started to believe that all news we were consuming was untrue. Additionally, by calling “fake news” every five minutes, he is actively discrediting the journalists who work hard to report the truth. According to a journalist at the Huffington Post, “The professionals in the shrinking newspaper industry busily double- and triple-checking facts” (Goudie). No good journalist writes a story, especially a political one, without fact checking.
I think the problem is not in untrue news stories but outrageously biased reporting. This past election we saw a huge spike in biased news reporting. It’s no secret that if you vote republican, you typically watch FOX news and if you vote democrat, you typically watch CNN. The problem with this is that since we are watching and receiving news based on what fits our beliefs, we only get half of the story. Both candidates for the 2016 had their fair share of skeletons in their closets, however, depending on which news outlet you watched you saw more of one person’s closet than the other.
The only thing the media and news outlets can truly do is to ensure that they are covering news, especially political news, as unbiased and fairly as possible. You might not like the current president, but if your job is to report news on him and his administration, your news outlet needs to ensure that what they’re reporting is as unbiased as you can be. At the end of the day, the job of journalism is to inform the public with the whole story, not just half of it.
Works Cited:
Barthel, Michaeel, and Amy Mitchell. “American's Attitudes About the News Media Deeply Divided Along Partisan Lines.” Pew Research Center, 10 May 2017, pp. 1–40.
Goudie, Jeffrey Ann. “The Media Do Have A Bias – Toward Truth.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 27 Oct. 2016, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-media-do-have-a-bias-toward-truth_us_58124152e4b0390e69cec910.
Kellman, Laurie, and Jonathan Drew. “Correction: Trump-One Year-Media Story.” AP News, Associated Press, 18 Jan. 2018, www.apnews.com/c1d5df2ffe2144c2ab75b3dd052632b3/Trust-in-news-media-takes-a-hit-during-Trump-presidency.
Fake news is everywhere. Fake news has turned the news media outlets upside down. Fake news is all over social media, television and in everything we read these days. It has become more difficult each day for people to believe what journalist write about. Social media is obviously the top place people go to if they want to read or watch what is going on in today’s world. Facebook has been a major outlet where people go to get news. But in recent years, Facebook has wanted to stay away from news. “The message is clear: in the messy news landscape of a post-Trump world, Facebook would like to distance itself from the ugly stuff. The stuff it doesn’t understand. The stuff it obviously can’t control” (Topolsky). Facebook doesn’t want to focus on all of the news because half of it is fake news anyways. They get profit off of attention and data. News has changed dramatically over the years. Back in the day, political issues was the face of everyday news. Over the years, news has turned into a place where journalist write about the latest celebrity scandal. Even though political issues is still a strong topic in today’s news, journalist have shifted into writing more about what the younger generations want read because journalist can attract the younger generations if they write about different scandals rather than political issues. “Millennials also appear to be drawn into news that they might otherwise have ignored because peers are recommending and contextualizing it for them on social networks, as well as on more private networks such as group texts and instant messaging” (Young). When fake news is posted on social media outlets, everyone believes it at first. Nobody knows that it is fake until someone gets the real story or someone comes out with someone saying it is fake. Milennials are the top people who use social media to find out the latest scandal. “False information is dangerous because of its ability to affect public opinion and electoral discourse. According to David Lazer, “such situations can enable discriminatory and inflammatory ideas to enter public discourse and be treated as fact” (Sablich). Fake news can harm our world because of the way people react to it. News media outlets need too stay focused on better journalism. When news media outlets see fake news over social media outlets, they need to call it out right away and let our world know that it is fake because if they wait too long, it can get out of hand and harm people’s lives. There will always be fake news over social media outlets. But, it can decrease over the next few years if news media outlets can catch fake news right when it comes out. People can protect themselves from fake news by not relying on a small number of media outlets. The smaller the news media company, the more fake news there could be. Smaller companies want to get there name out there so they will do anything and everything to become popular. People need to focus more on the major news media companies because they are less likely to put out false information.
Work Cited: Topolsky, Joshua. “Facebook Killing News Is the Best Thing That Ever Happened to News.” The Outline. 15 January 2018. theoutline.com/post/2936/facebook-news-feed-changes-are-actually-good-for-news?zd=8.
Young, Eric. “How Millennials Get News: Inside the Habits of America’s First Digital Generation.” American Press. 2015 March. www.mediainsight.org
Sablich, Elizabeth. “How to Combat Fake News and Disinformation.” Brookings. 18 December 2017. https://www.brookings.edu/research/how-to-combat-fake-news-and-disinformation/
In today’s political atmosphere, people rely heavily on news outlets to keep up with the rigorous race in politics. However, though television and radio news are some of the prime media outlets for people to receive their news, Internet media has also become a source heavily relied upon for consumers. With this in mind, the Internet is a wide-open field for anyone with Internet access; therefore, causing some hesitance on what is trustworthy news and what is not. This has been labeled as “fake news” in our society. The term was especially pinned during the information overload of the 2016 United States Presidential elections between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
The term has been toggled with between “fake” news and “false” news. President Trump has had a frequent use of the term “fake” news, giving media outlets a negative stigma. On the flip side, media outlets tend to choose the term “false” news. In an article posted in The Atlantic, writer Robinson Meyer writes, “Facebook now almost exclusively uses the term false news to talk about fake news. First Draft, a nonprofit research group within Harvard University, also prefers false news, arguing that fake news fails to capture the scope of the misinformation problem online” (Meyer). No matter which term is being used to describe this kind of information out on the web or on television, it all circles back to the same idea that it is unreliable information without credible sources.
Because of the confusion over which outlets to believe, it has affected Americans forming opinions based on dependable facts. Continuing with the analysis of the 2016 election, Americans were pounded with political media, even if someone was not much of a political person at all; there was no way to escape it. Most of this constant media was often one candidate bashing another more that that candidate’s actual policies. An article posted by the Associated Press says, “… a year into Donald Trump’s fact-bending, media-bashing presidency, Americans are increasingly confused about who can be trusted to tell them reliably what their government and their commander in chief are doing” (Kellman and Drew). Similarly, during the election, it’s been said that Trump actually used this kind of content to sway his voters. Lucia Graves for Pacific Standard in her article writes, “Now, "fake news" can refer to biased media, editorial malfeasance, spurious content produced overseas for profit, or simply any news Trump doesn't like—depending on who's listening” (Graves). There was, and still tends to be, a slight disconnect in the process of delivering information from the source itself and the media that delivers it to the public. However, this is a common recurrence within politics, even before this blast of political media from the 2016 election.
From the negative stigma surrounding this type of political media, the question then arises if we will ever be able to combat it. My guess is no, there is no possible way to escape “fake news.” Because the Internet is so accessible and no matter how hard news outlets try to stay unbiased, there will always be this ideal of “fake news” and untrustworthy media because it’s so unlimited.
Works Cited
Graves, Lucia. “How Trump Weaponized 'Fake News' for His Own Political Ends.” Pacific Standard, 26 Feb. 2018.
Kellman, Laurie and Jonathan Drew. "Trust in News Media Takes a Hit During Trump Presidency," Associated Press 15 Jan. 2018. Web.
Meyer, Robinson. "Why It’s Okay to Call It ‘Fake News,’" The Atlantic 9 March 2018. Web.
News media in the United States has undergone somewhat of a credibility crisis throughout the last two or three years. There are a variety of factors responsible for this crisis of credibility: the growing popularity of partisan programming, the divisive 2016 Presidential campaigns of both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, and information overload on social media.
ReplyDeleteAnybody with access to a computer can post whatever he or she wants, true or fake, on social media. This is why there is such an insurmountable amount of false information on the Internet. A January article from The Associate Press reads, “About 2 in 3 American adults say fabricated news stories cause a great deal of confusion about the basic facts of current affairs, according to a Pew Research Center report in December 2016. The survey found that Republicans and Democrats are about equally likely to say that “fake news” leaves Americans deeply confused about current events. Despite the concern, more than 8 in 10 feel very or somewhat confident that they can recognize news that is fabricated, the survey found” (Kellman and Drew).
One in four Americans visited a fake news site between October 7 and November 14, 2016, leaving some overwhelmed with the massive volume and increasing unreliability of news on the Internet (Meyer). This is why some consumers have placed their trust in seemingly reputable news outlets like Fox News and MSNBC, only to find out that their trusted outlets are “fake” as well, as they all push partisan agendas
Partisan news outlets have long existed in the U.S., the Party Press Era of the late 18th Century even saw political parties financially supporting the news media; there were papers written solely for Federalists, Anti-Federalists, and later Republicans and Whigs (Bulla). It is no surprise that in the contemporary era, people still like their news tailored to support their preconceived political notions rather than challenge them.
Though the term had not yet entered the lexicon, the newspapers of the Party Press Era can be likened to contemporary cable news and commentary networks like Fox News and MSNBC, as they are all their own brands of “fake news”. This type of fake news is not necessarily factually incorrect, but rather, are misleading and indoctrinating. When the President acts outrageously and tweets insults at public figures, Fox News will rationalize the act while MSNBC chastises it. In contrast, during President Obama’s two terms, Fox News would often chastise his actions while MSNBC would glorify them.
This contrast is one of the reasons many consumers now see news media outlets as unreliable. If news media outlets are to combat the “fake news” stigma, they will have to abandon commentary and focus solely on news.
Works Cited
Kellman, Laurie, and Jonathan Drew. “Correction: Trump-One Year-Media Story.” AP News, Associated Press, 18 Jan. 2018, www.apnews.com/c1d5df2ffe2144c2ab75b3dd052632b3/Trust-in-news-media-takes-a-hit-during-Trump-presidency.
Meyer, Robinson. “Why It's Okay to Call It 'Fake News'.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 9 Mar. 2018, www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/03/why-its-okay-to-say-fake-news/555215/?yptr=yahoo.
Bulla, David W. “Party Press Era.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 29 Dec. 2015, www.britannica.com/topic/party-press-era.
News media will never be the same. Since the 2016 election year, there has been an unprecedented shift in the news, making individuals question everything they hear and read. Fake news has become an American crisis and the past few years has turned news into something that has become harder and harder for individuals to decipher regardless of their political alignment.
ReplyDeleteWe have entered into a different era of news, in the past news was seen as bipartisan with the exception of certain political news networks. Now everything about the news can be seen as politically based even watching the news at dinner or before bed on broadcast channel can sometimes be questioned. Whether you’re a republican or a democrat you’re going to examine the news… always thinking if there is a political spin on the deliverance of the story, if there was an agenda being pushed, or if the sources are reliable. However according to the Pew Research Center, “Democrats and Republicans, who already tend to place their trust in different news sources and rely on different outlets for political news, now disagree more than ever on a fundamental issue of the news media’s role in society”(Barthel and Mitchell 2017). This is what the world of news media has come to, credible to constantly questioned and more divisive than ever.
Buzzfeed even gives out “fake news” quizzes to see if readers are fully informed and not being tricked by the fake headlines they read on Facebook. Because there is such a social media overload, individuals are blindly reading fake news on multiple platforms and not even realizing it. “Fake news” can be extremely influential and extremely dangerous, like the 2016 Pizzagate conspiracy theory. It started with a Facebook post and ended with a shooting. “Welch's arrest was the culmination of an election cycle dominated by fake news – and by attacks on the legitimate press. Several media outlets quickly traced the contours of what became known as Pizzagate: The claim that Hillary Clinton was a pedophile started in a Facebook post, spread to Twitter and then went viral with the help of far-right platforms like Breitbart and Info-Wars” (Robb 2017).
News outlets are trying to come up with innovative ways to combat fake news and gain their trust back. Like using Paywalls, but that is coming with a lot of backlash. Paywalls have been around for a while but that was for higher end publications like The Wall Street Journal but now they want to implement it on publications that were always free, basically forcing people to pay for the news. This brings up the issue of who can afford a subscription, and if someone can’t, will they just be forced to have to read free “fake news”?
ReplyDelete“While subscriptions are inexpensive and don’t require a tremendous amount of wealth, they do require a person to have some money, and people who can’t afford food or a place to live can’t afford to pay for journalism. To suggest they either don’t exist or that they aren’t entitled to high-quality journalism is cruel and unnecessary”(Bryant 2018). The “fake news” rhetoric has turned news on its head and has caused a frenzy. The “fake news” epidemic needs to be addressed but it may be years before news gets creditability back.
Robb, Amanda. “Pizzagate: Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal.” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 16 Nov. 2017, www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/pizzagate-anatomy-of-a-fake-news-scandal-w511904.
Barthel , Michael, and Amy Mitchell . “American Attitudes About the News Media Deeply Divided Along Partisan Lines .” Pew Research Center , 10 May 2017, pp. 1–40 ., quinnipiac.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-2454763-dt-content-rid-20167267_1/courses/MSS49502_18SP/American%20Attitudes%20About%20the%20News%20Media%20Deeply%20Divided%20Along%20Partisan%20Lines.pdf.
Bryant , Mollie. “Why Paywalls Won't Save Journalism.” MediaShift, 9 Feb. 2018, mediashift.org/2018/02/why-paywalls-wont-save-journalism
ReplyDeleteJournalism is struggling in the Trump era. According to the Associated Press, when consumers wants to get the news, they no longer turn on the TV. They turn to other medias, claiming that the news on TV is too biased. Even those who are affiliated with one of the two most prominent political parties have lost faith in the news, no matter which outlet it comes from. There is so much conflicting information that is broadcasted, consumers don’t know which is accurate and swear off news as we know it. Now more than ever accurate and reliable journalism is necessary, but it seems to be nowhere to be found. According to the staff at The Miami Hurricane, the most important part of journalism is to you show your community ways it can help and tell the stories that matter. With the American people at a wider political divide than any in recent memory and world leaders threatening nuclear war, constantly receiving “fake news” is not only irritating for the average consumer, but also dangerous.
“Fake news” is defined by The Atlantic as “content that is being put out there that has all the dressings of something that looks legitimate. It’s not just something that is false—it’s something that is manufactured to hide the fact that it is false.” Just like any dangerous or difficult profession, there are two types of people. There are the ones who are deterred by the struggles, acknowledging that there are big problems but believing that they can’t fix it. Then there are the ones who are encouraged by all the negativity and want to make a difference. So as far as the impact on the profession itself, I don’t think there will be much of a change.
The only way news outlets can combat fake news is if they put out the opposite: real news. They need to earn back consumers’ trust and it isn’t something that is going to come easily. It’s not just a stigma, it’s something we actually see on a day-to-day basis. At this point, the only way to fix it is to make changes at the executive level and down. Once consumers, especially those who have sworn off of major media outlets, see the changes being implemented they might give it another try.
Meyer, Robinson. "Why It’s Okay to Call It ‘Fake News,’" The Atlantic 9 March 2018. Web.
Kellman, Laurie and Jonathan Drew. "Trust in News Media Takes a Hit During Trump Presidency," Associated Press 15 Jan. 2018. Web.
Editorial Staff. “An open letter to Marjory Stoneman Douglas’ student journalists,” The Miami Hurricane 26 Mar. 2018. Web.
Journalism has evidently become the main industry effected by this brave new world of “fake news.” Fake news is “false stories that appear to be news, spread on the internet or using other media, usually created to influence political views or as a joke" (Cambridge Dictionary). Donald Trump has been accusing journalists of reporting inaccuracies since the primaries in 2016 and has yet to stop. Stephanie Sugars cataloged 990 of Trump’s tweets during the summer of 2017. Sugars categorized as “insults,” “denigrate media,” “media bias,” “accusation of false reporting,” “call for firing, boycotting, or there action against a journalist, a news organization, or the media in general,” “leaks and leakers,” and “threats.” Trump’s tweets targeted journalists, Megyn Kelly and Joe Scarborough. These two have been targeting for how the speak about Trump in the media and criticizing his mental stability (Peters). If 990 tweets fit into these hateful categories during one summer, how many more have there been?
ReplyDeleteIn a world where Trump is constantly tearing down the media with his tweets and words, any person would be concerned about legitimacy from any media they receive. “There’s been no love for the media for decades. The percentage expressing a great deal of confidence in the press has eroded from a high of 28 percent in 1976 to just 8 percent in 2016, according the General Social Survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago” ( Drew, Kellman). Distrust for the media has been a trend for decades, Trump simply capitalized on it. The American public have not been believing what they have been reading and Trump is endorsing that belief willingly with a smorgasbord of people following him. “When Trump labels something “fake news,” ″I just have started assuming ... whatever he’s talking about must be true,” said 46-year-old Joseph Murray” (Drew, Kellman). As more people fall in line with what Trump says, more people are completely desensitized to media and journalists by simply calling it “fake news.”
Journalism’s role has been forced to change because of the political and social climate that has been elevated due to Trumps comments and attitude. Journalists Thomas Hughes and Jodie Ginsberg claim that journalism is being scrutinized like never before. Other journalists have been detained at borders, had their equipment stolen and been faced with charges for being present at protests like Black Lives Matter and the Dakota Access Pipeline (Ginsberg, Hughes). As fake news and harassment circles around journalism, the answer might be to pick quieter stories. It might be to focus on nicer, safer topics but then journalists would be turning their backs on their profession. In this political and social climate, it is time to write about controversy and force it to be heard by sharing it in every way possible. Facebook is no longer aiding news organizations by making them a priority on their news feeds so, maybe it is time to focus on different outlets or conglomerating and making an app that anyone can download to find their news (Topolsky). Niches are important for television and movies; niches are important for news organizations, too.
Delete“Fake News.” Cambridge Dictionary, Cambridge University Press, dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/fake-news.
Hughes, Thomas, and Jodie Ginsberg. “The Biggest Risk to American Journalism Isn't Posed by Trump | Thomas Hughes and Jodie Ginberg.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 19 Jan. 2018, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/19/american-journalism-fake-news-trump.
Kellman, Laurie, and Jonathan Drew. “Correction: Trump-One Year-Media Story.” AP News, Associated Press, 15 Jan. 2018, www.apnews.com/c1d5df2ffe2144c2ab75b3dd052632b3/Trust-in-news-media-takes-a-hit-during-Trump-presidency.
Peters, Jonathan. “Trump Twitter Spreadsheet Tracks ‘a Perpetual Campaign against the Press.’” Columbia Journalism Review, 21 Dec. 2017, www.cjr.org/united_states_project/trump-twitter-spreadsheet-press-attacks.php.
Topolsky, Joshua. “Facebook Killing News Is the Best Thing That Ever Happened to News.” The Outline, The Outline, 15 Jan. 2018, theoutline.com/post/2936/facebook-news-feed-changes-are-actually-good-for-news?zd=8.
The role of journalism and news media has drastically shifted over the past couple of years. Since the presidential election in 2016, news has become more partisan than ever before. Both candidates were polarizing individuals whom were on complete opposite sides of the political spectrum. It was practically the equivalent to watching a reality television show. Everything that was said or reported was blown up to the whole world. With all the technological advancements, fake news is at an all time high. An article from Brookings states, "Journalism is in a state of considerable flux. New digital platforms have unleashed innovative journalistic practices that enable novel forms of communication and greater global reach than at any point in human history” (West.) Today, anybody can be a journalist. You can film or write anything, put it up on the Internet, and just like that you may have what the world calls “fake news.” People get their news from all over in today’s day and age. There are so many different conflicting stories as well as coverage options that people don’t know what to believe or where to go for good information. An article from the Associated Press states, “But a year into Donald Trump’s fact-bending, media-bashing presidency, Americans are increasingly confused about who can be trusted to tell them reliably what their government and their commander in chief are doing” (Kellman and Drew.) With this increasing issue, journalism is taking a huge hit. When you have the President of your country calling out the major news outlets saying that everything that they put out is “fake news” you have a big problem. You now have people who are listening to what the President says about the news because at the end of the day he is supposed to be the most credible person in the country. This then makes most media news outlets seem not credible at all when since the dawn of time they were the ones that everybody trusted the most in regards to credibility. With some of the big news media outlets being associated with fake news, people are now turning to other sources for their news. Lots of these sources come from all over, aren’t credible, and are in fact very much so completely “fake news.” An article from the Atlantic reads, “One in four Americans visited a fake-news website between October 7 and November 14, 2016, according to a recent study from researchers at Princeton University, Dartmouth College, and the University of Exeter. And a massive study released this week from media scientists at MIT found that falsehoods travel faster, further, and deeper than accurate information on Twitter” (Meyer.) Now that everybody has the ability to be a journalist on the web, people are actually reading what they are saying…real or not. On twitter specifically, “fake news” tends to blow up since it is made to be juicy, controversial, and a very strong take. The fact that it has thousands of likes, retweets, and comments is all the validation people need to believe that it is real.
ReplyDeleteSources
DeleteKellman, L., & Drew, J. (2018, January 18). Correction: Trump-One Year-Media story. Retrieved March 27, 2018, from https://www.apnews.com/c1d5df2ffe2144c2ab75b3dd052632b3/Trust-in-news-media-takes-a-hit-during-Trump-presidency
Meyer, R. (2018, March 09). Why It's Okay to Call It 'Fake News'. Retrieved March 27, 2018, from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/03/why-its-okay-to-say-fake-news/555215/?yptr=yahoo
West, D. M. (2017, December 18). How to combat fake news and disinformation. Retrieved March 27, 2018, from https://www.brookings.edu/research/how-to-combat-fake-news-and-disinformation/
Journalism is a fast shifting profession, from receiving news from the telegraph to the radio to television to social media, etc. Journalism is constantly growing as society advances. It was always the public's right to know what is going on. Just recently, journalists were in luck because there was so much to say about politics these past few years. The role of journalism in these cases is to simply spit out the facts. Yes, certain companies are biased, but there are sources that are not. Now a days, it is easier for anyone to become a journalist. There are so many mobile tools and with news integrating with social media, it has never been easier being a reporter. But with the increase in at-home reporters, this results in “fake news.” A lot of times, reporters want to be the first ones to put out news so this again, results in inaccurate information. Variety wrote an article titled Journalists Raise Concerns About ‘Fake News’ Rhetoric After Man’s Arrest for Threats to CNN. In this article, author Ted Johnson mentions how many journalists have been getting threats. Huge companies like CNN receive threats for putting our “fake news.”
ReplyDeleteAccording to the News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2017 article written by Elisa Shearer and Jeffrey Gottfried, two thirds of U.S. adults get their news from social media. This tells a lot about our news today. “Not only have Americans grown somewhat in their use of social media for news overall, but now they are more likely than ever to get news from multiple social media sites. About one quarter of all U.S. adults (26%) get news from two or more of these sites, up from 18% in 2016 and 15% in 2013.” Pew Research Center says. With the easy access of news on social media, this does not account of accuracy. A lot of times when you see news on the internet, it will not be 100% true, so one must fact check.
Robinson Meyer wrote an article for The Atlantic where he says, “Fake news refers to a distinct phenomenon with a specific name, they say, and we should just use that name (fake news) to talk about that problem (fake news).“We can’t shy away from phrases because they’ve been somehow weaponized. We have to stick to our guns and say there is a real phenomenon here,” said David Lazer, one of the authors of the essay and a professor of political science and computer science at Northeastern University.” That being said, news channels will probably still be accused of putting out “fake news,” but for them to get better at this stigma, they would just have to really fact check their news and sources.
Johnson, Ted. “Journalists Raise Concerns About ‘Fake News’ Rhetoric After Man’s Arrest for Threats to CNN.” Variety. 23 January 2018. http://variety.com/2018/politics/news/trump-fake-news-cnn-1202673974/
Shearer, Elisa and Gottfried Jeffrey. “News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2017.” Pew Research Center. 7 September 2017.
Meyer, Robinson. “Why It's Okay to Call It 'Fake News'.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 9 Mar. 2018 www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/03/why-its-okay-to-say-fake-news/555215/?yptr=yahoo.
The role of journalism has changed significantly in the last two years. We know what the original idea of journalism was: to report unbiased events to the community to keep people informed. However, because of social media and certain public figures, the name of journalism has been tarnished.
ReplyDeleteToday, journalism seems to be there for whatever “side” you’re on. For most people, the news channel you watch reflects what political party you watch. However, the problem is that journalism is supposed to be unbiased. According to the Pew Research Center, “89% of democrats say news media criticism keeps leaders in line” (Barthel and Mitchell). Due to the election, journalism has become extremely biased therefore no one is ever getting the full story.
Another issue we’ve been seeing is the idea of “fake news”, a term coined by none other than the President himself. Personally, I believe this started because certain news outlets were reporting “untrue” stories about the President during the election. However, anyone with a computer could fact check the stories and determine if they were true or not. Due to the sensitive nature of our Presidents ego, when there was a major story (that would turn out to be true), he would call “fake news”, almost like calling wolf. According to the Associated Press, “As president, he (Trump) regularly complains about his news coverage and has attacked news outlets and journalists as “failing” and “fake news” (Kellmen and Drew). To me, it just sounds like he can’t handle criticism and the fact that most of what he says is insane. He’s called “fake news” so many times that people genuinely started to believe that all news we were consuming was untrue. Additionally, by calling “fake news” every five minutes, he is actively discrediting the journalists who work hard to report the truth. According to a journalist at the Huffington Post, “The professionals in the shrinking newspaper industry busily double- and triple-checking facts” (Goudie). No good journalist writes a story, especially a political one, without fact checking.
I think the problem is not in untrue news stories but outrageously biased reporting. This past election we saw a huge spike in biased news reporting. It’s no secret that if you vote republican, you typically watch FOX news and if you vote democrat, you typically watch CNN. The problem with this is that since we are watching and receiving news based on what fits our beliefs, we only get half of the story. Both candidates for the 2016 had their fair share of skeletons in their closets, however, depending on which news outlet you watched you saw more of one person’s closet than the other.
The only thing the media and news outlets can truly do is to ensure that they are covering news, especially political news, as unbiased and fairly as possible. You might not like the current president, but if your job is to report news on him and his administration, your news outlet needs to ensure that what they’re reporting is as unbiased as you can be. At the end of the day, the job of journalism is to inform the public with the whole story, not just half of it.
Works Cited:
Barthel, Michaeel, and Amy Mitchell. “American's Attitudes About the News Media Deeply Divided Along Partisan Lines.” Pew Research Center, 10 May 2017, pp. 1–40.
Goudie, Jeffrey Ann. “The Media Do Have A Bias – Toward Truth.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 27 Oct. 2016, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-media-do-have-a-bias-toward-truth_us_58124152e4b0390e69cec910.
Kellman, Laurie, and Jonathan Drew. “Correction: Trump-One Year-Media Story.” AP News, Associated Press, 18 Jan. 2018, www.apnews.com/c1d5df2ffe2144c2ab75b3dd052632b3/Trust-in-news-media-takes-a-hit-during-Trump-presidency.
Fake news is everywhere. Fake news has turned the news media outlets upside down. Fake news is all over social media, television and in everything we read these days. It has become more difficult each day for people to believe what journalist write about. Social media is obviously the top place people go to if they want to read or watch what is going on in today’s world. Facebook has been a major outlet where people go to get news. But in recent years, Facebook has wanted to stay away from news. “The message is clear: in the messy news landscape of a post-Trump world, Facebook would like to distance itself from the ugly stuff. The stuff it doesn’t understand. The stuff it obviously can’t control” (Topolsky). Facebook doesn’t want to focus on all of the news because half of it is fake news anyways. They get profit off of attention and data.
ReplyDeleteNews has changed dramatically over the years. Back in the day, political issues was the face of everyday news. Over the years, news has turned into a place where journalist write about the latest celebrity scandal. Even though political issues is still a strong topic in today’s news, journalist have shifted into writing more about what the younger generations want read because journalist can attract the younger generations if they write about different scandals rather than political issues. “Millennials also appear to be drawn into news that they might otherwise have ignored because peers are recommending and contextualizing it for them on social networks, as well as on more private networks such as group texts and instant messaging” (Young). When fake news is posted on social media outlets, everyone believes it at first. Nobody knows that it is fake until someone gets the real story or someone comes out with someone saying it is fake. Milennials are the top people who use social media to find out the latest scandal.
“False information is dangerous because of its ability to affect public opinion and electoral discourse. According to David Lazer, “such situations can enable discriminatory and inflammatory ideas to enter public discourse and be treated as fact” (Sablich). Fake news can harm our world because of the way people react to it. News media outlets need too stay focused on better journalism. When news media outlets see fake news over social media outlets, they need to call it out right away and let our world know that it is fake because if they wait too long, it can get out of hand and harm people’s lives. There will always be fake news over social media outlets. But, it can decrease over the next few years if news media outlets can catch fake news right when it comes out. People can protect themselves from fake news by not relying on a small number of media outlets. The smaller the news media company, the more fake news there could be. Smaller companies want to get there name out there so they will do anything and everything to become popular. People need to focus more on the major news media companies because they are less likely to put out false information.
Work Cited:
Topolsky, Joshua. “Facebook Killing News Is the Best Thing That Ever Happened to News.” The Outline. 15 January 2018. theoutline.com/post/2936/facebook-news-feed-changes-are-actually-good-for-news?zd=8.
Young, Eric. “How Millennials Get News: Inside the Habits of America’s First Digital Generation.” American Press. 2015 March. www.mediainsight.org
Sablich, Elizabeth. “How to Combat Fake News and Disinformation.” Brookings. 18 December 2017. https://www.brookings.edu/research/how-to-combat-fake-news-and-disinformation/
In today’s political atmosphere, people rely heavily on news outlets to keep up with the rigorous race in politics. However, though television and radio news are some of the prime media outlets for people to receive their news, Internet media has also become a source heavily relied upon for consumers. With this in mind, the Internet is a wide-open field for anyone with Internet access; therefore, causing some hesitance on what is trustworthy news and what is not. This has been labeled as “fake news” in our society. The term was especially pinned during the information overload of the 2016 United States Presidential elections between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
ReplyDeleteThe term has been toggled with between “fake” news and “false” news. President Trump has had a frequent use of the term “fake” news, giving media outlets a negative stigma. On the flip side, media outlets tend to choose the term “false” news. In an article posted in The Atlantic, writer Robinson Meyer writes, “Facebook now almost exclusively uses the term false news to talk about fake news. First Draft, a nonprofit research group within Harvard University, also prefers false news, arguing that fake news fails to capture the scope of the misinformation problem online” (Meyer). No matter which term is being used to describe this kind of information out on the web or on television, it all circles back to the same idea that it is unreliable information without credible sources.
Because of the confusion over which outlets to believe, it has affected Americans forming opinions based on dependable facts. Continuing with the analysis of the 2016 election, Americans were pounded with political media, even if someone was not much of a political person at all; there was no way to escape it. Most of this constant media was often one candidate bashing another more that that candidate’s actual policies. An article posted by the Associated Press says, “… a year into Donald Trump’s fact-bending, media-bashing presidency, Americans are increasingly confused about who can be trusted to tell them reliably what their government and their commander in chief are doing” (Kellman and Drew). Similarly, during the election, it’s been said that Trump actually used this kind of content to sway his voters. Lucia Graves for Pacific Standard in her article writes, “Now, "fake news" can refer to biased media, editorial malfeasance, spurious content produced overseas for profit, or simply any news Trump doesn't like—depending on who's listening” (Graves). There was, and still tends to be, a slight disconnect in the process of delivering information from the source itself and the media that delivers it to the public. However, this is a common recurrence within politics, even before this blast of political media from the 2016 election.
From the negative stigma surrounding this type of political media, the question then arises if we will ever be able to combat it. My guess is no, there is no possible way to escape “fake news.” Because the Internet is so accessible and no matter how hard news outlets try to stay unbiased, there will always be this ideal of “fake news” and untrustworthy media because it’s so unlimited.
Works Cited
Graves, Lucia. “How Trump Weaponized 'Fake News' for His Own Political Ends.” Pacific Standard, 26 Feb. 2018.
Kellman, Laurie and Jonathan Drew. "Trust in News Media Takes a Hit During Trump Presidency," Associated Press 15 Jan. 2018. Web.
Meyer, Robinson. "Why It’s Okay to Call It ‘Fake News,’" The Atlantic 9 March 2018. Web.