Running Head: FAKE NEWS

Fake News:

Does Fake News Exist, and How can Individuals Spot and Combat Fake News?

Jeremy Thorpe

Sterling High School

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Abstract

In today’s world, online social media plays a vital role during real world events, especially

crisis events. There are both positive and negative effects of social media coverage of events. This

article examines the history of fake news, how it affects our modern culture, as well as how we can

prevent it from spreading.

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Outline

Topic: Does fake news exists, and how can individuals spot and combat fake news?

Thesis: In order to critically evaluate these claims, it is important to fully understand the concept

of fake news, how to spot it, and how to determine the correct response.

I. Introduction

II. What is Fake News?

A. Brief History

1. History of the phrase “fake news”

2. Its use in Trump’s presidential campaign

III. How is it Dangerous?

A. Social Aspects of Fake News

1. Negative Effects

2. Potential Impacts

B. Stock Market

1. Example of Fake News in the Stock Market

IV. Is it Possible for us to Combat Fake News?

A. Responsibility of the Media to Filter-Out Fake News

1. Facebook

B. Identifying Fake News Sources

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1. Fact Checks

2. Citing Sources

C. Responses to Fake News

1. Ignore

2. Stay Well Informed

V. Conclusion

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Fake News In Modern Culture

On the surface, the concept of fake news is a simple one. Fake news also undermines

serious media coverage and makes it more difficult for journalists to cover significant news

stories. The intended purpose behind fake news is important to understand. In some cases, what

appears to be fake news may in fact just be a case of exaggeration. Propaganda can also be fake

news. In other words, fake news is any material than is published as news with the intent to

mislead readers of viewers. Fake news is dangerous because it can contribute to a wide variety of

social problems. In order to critically evaluate these claims, it is important to fully understand the

concept of fake news, how to spot it, and how to determine the correct response.

Contrary to popular belief, “fake news” is not a recent development. This catchphrase

actually dates back to Thomas Jefferson himself. After he penned the term “fake news”, it caught

on like a wildfire. The educated civilians began questioning editorials, as well as throw around

the term “fake news”. Even Edgar Allan Poe was known to harshly criticize the The Southern

Literary Messenger and chastise them for their fake news stories, even going so far to declare

them fiction.

We can understand than fake news has been a part of our country’s literary history since

it was first created, but is the American populous really so gullible that fake news could actually

have swung the 2016 election? There are recent allegations than fake news impacted the outcome

of the 2016 presidential election. A recent poll suggests than the U.S. election results were

influenced by a widespread belief in fake news among Trump supporters. Mark Zuckerberg

dismissed the idea than fake news on facebook could have possibly affected the presidential

election. He also claimed than 99% of the stories circulated on Facebook are factually accurate,

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which is itself a questionable statistic.. He firmly believes that fake news articles alone would not

have been enough to fool voters.

So what are some of the consequences of fake news? Can fake news really be all than

dangerous? Fake news has had a surprising hold on our culture as we know it, but how are we

affected socially by false journalism? One of the biggest reasons why fake news is so dangerous

is than it often hides under the appearance of a legitimate news organization. People with large

ambitions can create sites claiming to represent news organizations. They have no obligation to

follow the ethical and accuracy standards required of traditional media sources.

The real impact of fake news has been the realization than the public might not be well-

equipped to separate quality information from false information. This education gap of media

literacy training shows than we are potentially susceptible to gullibility. Fake news is responsible

for damaging the overall credibility of the media industry. If this is allowed to continue, we

could foresee severe consequences.

For example, let’s take a look at the Stock Market system. Everyday, bloggers and

freelancers write for business news sites. Not all of them are journalists. If their articles go viral,

misleading headlines could have a tremendous effect on stocks. For instance, if you were to hear

something about Nike making a bad product it could change the way their stock value is

perceived. These journalists may not even know they’re using misleading information, but once

the article is published, there’s no taking it back. Stocks also have a significant impact on our

economy. Therefore fake news not only hinders the ability to learn accurate information, it also

hinders the economy as a whole.

How do we protect ourselves from these dangers? Also, whose responsibility is it to filter

out fake news? The media? Facebook says than most fake news is financially motivated. It’s

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clickbait intended to lead users to websites filled with ads. By demoting these posts, Facebook

destroys the economic incentives. Facebook even penalizes repeat offenders by removing their

advertising rights. Similarly, Facebook as also added trust indicators to their platform. This

system was designed to promote legitimate, fact-based journalism. The more credible your posts

are, the more likely your post is to be viewed.

While it is comforting to know than Facebook has taken it upon themselves to help

prevent fake news, is it really their responsibility? Effective countermeasures are necessary.

Another way to combat fake news is to practice identifying fake news sources. This can easily be

accomplished by cross-referencing everything you read on the internet. Instead of just accepting

what you read at face value, it is important to fact check what you read. You don’t want to be

responsible for spreading an illegitimate article.

Another way to encourage proper journalism is to cite your sources. Every time you post

or tweet something, take the time to site your sources. Make sure your sources are reliable, and

encourage others to do the same. If everyone on the internet made sure than they were sharing

legitimate article, the spreading of fake news could be greatly reduced.

It is impossible to completely eliminate fake news stories due to free speech rights and

the internet’s open publishing environment. In fact, more people would rather fake news to

continue to exist than to try to infringe upon freedom of speech rights. Instead, one of two

different approaches are necessary: Ignorance, or careful examination of sources. If everyone

refused to read the news, we would not have to worry about sharing fake news. This solution is

folly. We can’t prevent people from reading the news. So instead, if everyone would strive to be

well versed, then we could prevent fake news from becoming a growing issue.

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References

Allcott, H., & Gentzkow, M. (2017). Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election.

Journal of Economic Perspectives, 31(2), 211-236. doi:10.1257/jep.31.2.211

Barwick, B. J. (2017). Combating Fake News. Public Relations Tactics, 24(3), 12.

Berenson, A. (2000, August 25). On Hair-Trigger Wall Street, A Stock Plunges on Fake

News. Retrieved December 19, 2017

Cooke, N. A. (2017). Posttruth, Truthiness, and Alternative Facts: Information Behavior

and Critical Information Consumption for a New Age. Library Quarterly, 87(3), 211-

221.

Fake news' drastic impact on media credibility. (2017, September 28). Retrieved from

<https://www.agilitypr.com/pr-news/public-relations/fake-news-drastic-impact-

media-credibility/>

Hajirnis, A. (2015). Social media networking: Parental guidance required. (Cover story).

Brown University Child & Adolescent Behavior Letter, 31(12), 1-7. doi:10.1002/cbl

Newton, C. (2017, November 16). Facebook adds trust indicators to news articles in an

effort to identify real journalism. Retrieved from

<https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/16/16658538/facebook-trust-indicators-fake-news-

trust-project>

Nick Robins-Early, How To Recognize A Fake News Story, The Huffington Post (Nov. 27,

2016)

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Rapoza, K. (2017, February 27). Can 'Fake News' Impact The Stock Market? Retrieved

from <https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2017/02/26/can-fake-news-impact-the-

stock

-market/2/>

Students Have 'Dismaying' Inability to Tell Fake News from Real, Study Finds, NPR

(Nov. 23, 2016)

S., S. (2017). Combating Fake News: The News Integrity Initiative aims to increase trust

in journalism. Editor & Publisher, 150(6), 14.

The dangers of fake news. (n.d.). Retrieved from <http://registerguard.com/rg/opinion/

36171394-78/the-dangers-of-fake-news.html.csp>

The Role of Libraries in Combating Fake News. (2017, May 5). Retrieved October 25,

2017, from <https://www.ebsco.com/blog-archives/article/the-role-of-libraries-in-

combating-

fake-news>.

USCINSKI, J. E. (2017). FAKE NEWS FREAKOUT. Reason, 48(10), 54-59

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Annotated Bibliography

Allcott, H., & Gentzkow, M. (2017). Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election.

Journal of Economic Perspectives, 31(2), 211-236. doi:10.1257/jep.31.2.211

Matthew Gentzkow and Hunt Allcott speak of fake news in this article, and the effect it

had on the twenty-sixteen election. Alcott and Gentzkow provide statistics relating to adults that

get news through social media, and provide insight into what kind of news people are seeing the

most of. They go on with research on how this affected the twenty-sixteen election, and how it

has become more mainstream since it was first brought into use within society.

The work of Gentzkow and Alcott will be very useful for me as it provides a good look at

how the concept of “fake news” can affect democracy even in today’s society. Gentzkow and

Alcott show in great detail how people are consuming news, how they view it, what percentage

of people are viewing it, the history of fake news reports, and how it has become much more

prevalent in the last few years. I can then use this article to explain the need for Internal

Criticism, or some other way of combating fake news.

Barwick, B. J. (2017). Combating Fake News. Public Relations Tactics, 24(3), 12.

This article provides several examples of past fake news stories from our history as a

country. In addition, the article lists many of the harms of fake news, as well as many ways to

combat fake news. Barwick does a good job of explaining the current situation of fake news in

the media. Barwick uses seven different examples of why fake news is harmful, as well provides

good explanations as how we can avoid falling for it.

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This article could be very helpful due to its level of specification. This article very closely

relates to the direction I want to take my paper. I could use every statistic and fact from this

article if I so chose. Not that that is necessary, but I could use the majority of this information. In

addition, the credibility of this source allows room for quotation as well as other referencing.

Finally, the same evidence is actually presented twice by two different qualified authors.

Berenson, A. (2000, August 25). On Hair-Trigger Wall Street, A Stock Plunges on Fake

News. Retrieved December 19, 2017

This article introduces some of the dangers of fake news in our society today. Emulex, a

fiber optic communications equipment company planned to restate its earnings for the last two

years. Investors then rushed to sell their shares causing stock to go from $103 a share to $45 in

15 minutes. However, the story about the chief executive was not true. By the end of the day, the

news was corrected and stocks returned to normal prices. This incident shows how fake news

could affect the stock market in such a dangerous way.

I can use this in my essay, because it points out some of the harms of fake news. This

would be helpful in, once again, stressing my point by explaining why it is so important to fight

fake news. In my opinion, the more harms/ negative impacts of fake news that I can include in

my essay, the better.

Cooke, N. A. (2017). Posttruth, Truthiness, and Alternative Facts: Information Behavior

and Critical Information Consumption for a New Age. Library Quarterly, 87(3), 211-

221.

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This article speaks of the dangers of fake news, as well as the how the knowledge of

information behavior and critical information evaluation skills can aid in combating the effects

of fake news and promote more savvy information consumption. This article also briefly covers

the history of fake news, e.g. when it originated?, etc.

This article could be helpful for me because of how specific the information is. It

mentions specifics as to how to aid in combating fake news in social media. As for the history of

fake news, It will probably be beneficial to briefly touch over the history of fake news. This will

help with the context of the rest of my paper. By doing this, the reader would be better prepared

for the topic. If the reader had no concept of what fake news was, this could be helpful in

providing a very basic definition.

Hajirnis, A. (2015). Social media networking: Parental guidance required. (Cover story).

Brown University Child & Adolescent Behavior Letter, 31(12), 1-7. doi:10.1002/cbl

This article speaks of the age range of the people who use facebook, as well as their

reasons for using social media. The article also lists some of the guidelines of social media

websites, specifically Facebook, and how they are only intended to be used by a specific age

group; in this case, 11 years old.

This article has nothing to do with combating fake news. The only reason why I would

include this article would be to appeal to emotion. By informing the reader of my essay of the

many underaged people who are being exposed to fake news, I will hopefully get the reader to

invest emotionally in my article, and recognize why it is important to combat fake news.

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Nick Robins-Early, How To Recognize A Fake News Story, The Huffington Post (Nov. 27,

2016)

This article offers nine specific tips for recognizing a fake news story. A few of them are

as follows: read the headline (Is it outlandish? Is it appropriate for the article provided), check

what outlet published it (Is it a reliable outlet? Such as a scholarly source?), the date in which the

article was published (Is it recent? Or is it from 1942?), and look for references (How many other

sources did this article reference? Are they reliable sources?)

Students Have 'Dismaying' Inability to Tell Fake News from Real, Study Finds, NPR

(Nov. 23, 2016)

Stanford researchers published a study concluding that students’ ability to assess

information sources was dismaying, bleak, and a threat to democracy. A large number of

students, 7,800, from middle school to college level in 12 states were surveyed. Students

continuously failed to distinguish credibility of sources for items such as articles, photographs,

and the source’s origin.

This once again stressing the importance of combating fake news. If the majority of the

students in this day and age are incapable of determining the difference between fake news and

legitimate scholarly sources, then learning to differentiate between the two has never been so

important.

S., S. (2017). Combating Fake News: The News Integrity Initiative aims to increase trust

in journalism. Editor & Publisher, 150(6), 14.

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This article speaks of the need for an increased trust in journalism. Throughout this

article, the author claims that an increased trust in journalism would be the key to solving for

fake news. It also explains how the News Integrity Initiative plans to improve online news

literacy and trust in journalism through the funding of applied research and projects. The project

will also fund the gathering of meetings with industry experts. This process could be the first

step in combating fake news.

This article could be very useful for me, as it provides a good example of how individuals

can combat fake news. This article references the News Integrity Initiative as well as other

qualified journalists. I can use this evidence to explain one possible technique for recognizing

fake news. If journalists continue to improve in their credibility, this should help individuals

enhance their online news literacy. By doing this, we can combat fake news.

The Role of Libraries in Combating Fake News. (2017, May 5). Retrieved October 25,

2017, from <https://www.ebsco.com/blog-archives/article/the-role-of-libraries-in-

combating-

fake-news>.

This article focuses on libraries and encyclopedias. It explains how libraries have a huge

role in combating fake news. The separate sections in a library do well to distinguish fact from

fiction. Students can go to the peer-reviewed section of the library, and find credible sources

from academic journals to other studies.

This article could be helpful in my essay, because of how it relates to students. Another

specific topic I could cover within my essay could be age. How the ability to fall for fake news

comes with age. If we teach our students how to combat fake news now, it will help us in the

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future. In addition, this article has several links to other scholarly articles that could be beneficial

in my research. Whether I use this source or not, it is a good source to look at. If not just for this

information, the information on the other links could possibly be helpful.

USCINSKI, J. E. (2017). FAKE NEWS FREAKOUT. Reason, 48(10), 54-59

Joseph Uscinski speaks of the numerous instances of fake news on social media sites and

networks today. Quite humorously, his article references a particular fake news story that

reported Obama making his way through college by being a gay prostitute― obviously fake. It

also refers to some fake news articles in which Hillary Clinton is either terminally ill, or had

even passed away.

While the article does not specifically mention combating fake news, this evidence could

be helpful because it gives some examples of some pretty outlandish news articles. I would be

able to reference fake news articles, or at least have them available, to make a specific point in

my essay. A case in point, a gay prostitute as our president.

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