“Fake News” and how it factors into today’s political climate

Although not mentioned in the textbook’s Chapter 6, “Fake News” is beginning to play more of a role in American politics as the means through which society participates in political discourse changes with time. Fake news refers to news that is verifiably false that could mislead readers, whether it is deliberate and intentionally deceitful or simply bad reporting. As platforms through which news can be relayed are introduced and it becomes easier to reach the minds of many, our ability to understand the complexities of the world has said to become damaged.

CBS News’ chief White House Correspondent Major Garrett commented on the widespread prominence of fake news on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, stating that “there is a reckoning coming about the underlying basis of shared news”. Specifically, he believes social media has been “weaponized” to implant potentially fake news stories that get circulated quickly and, unfortunately, into the minds of many people.

Many people associate the concept of fake news with our current president, Donald Trump because of his tendency to mention it through his own social media platforms. According to Politifact, as of November 6, 2017, President Trump had used the phrase “fake news’ at least 153 times in 2017. He has been accused of using the term to label articles that illustrate aspects of his presidency in a negative light.

Not only has President Trump used it to combat the criticisms of his actions, a Stanford University study in 2016 found that fake news likely played a role in the election of President Trump. According to the study, fake news stories widely shared and heavily in favor of Donald Trump were shared on Facebook a total for 30 million times, while only 7.6 million fake news stories in favor of Hilary Clinton were shared. In total, this can be interpreted into 760 million instances of a user scrolling through and read a fake news story or about three fake news stories read per American adult. Unfortunately, it can be argued that in most instances, it is not obvious to the reader whether the source is credible or not, or whether the story contains any falsehood. It can also be argued that regardless of whether the reader knows how true the article is or the extent of the source’s credibility, once an idea about politics enters that reader’s head, it could have an effect on how they view that concept within politics as a whole.

The 2016 election and the prevalence of more false articles regarding Donald Trump rather than Hilary Clinton on social media platforms is a prime example of how fake news can have an effect on politics and political outcomes. Since so these false articles were so widely shared, people’s outlooks were consequently affected. This connects to what Chapter 6 refers to as one of the central ideas of democracy, the idea that average citizens should control what their government does. For democracy to work, it is obvious that citizens should have the most accurate information possible in order to make informed decisions which will then control what the government does.

If so many people were so easily touched by fake news stories prior to the 2016 Presidential Election, they were, in fact, not exclusively provided with the most accurate information possible. It could be said that this idea translates how democracy is working if there are people making decisions based on falsehood. The question is, as time goes on, will people become more and more acclimated with these fake sources that they will simply choose not to believe them? Or will these false sources simply mask themselves with different titles in order to continue to convince people to believe their false stories are true? It is with certainty that one could say that finding this accurate information to base our political participation upon becomes a source of stress for the American citizen as new platforms for political discourse arise.

https://web.stanford.edu/~gentzkow/research/fakenews.pdf

5 Responses to "“Fake News” and how it factors into today’s political climate"

William Roberts says:

March 18, 2018 at 10:20 pm

Hey Joanna,

I thought you made some really interesting points and raised some important questions in your post. I agree with you from the start, that the ascendence of social media as a resource for political news, and a platform for political discourse, exacerbates the frequency of fake news. I also think you are right to note that social media networks are, in fact, “weaponized” to spread fake news faster and distort Americans’ perception of modern politics. Since social media is a relatively new way of spreading deceitful information, I think it would be interesting to compare the impact of fake news on American society and politics across decades. Further, I liked how you used the 2016 election cycle to illustrate the significant impact fake news has on our American democracy, and the sinister implications it poses.

In the last paragraph, you make the point that, as false information circulates faster with the rise of social media platforms, American citizens are increasingly stressed by whether or not they should believe the information they read. They understand, then, that the information they are using to base their vote on may not be entirely accurate. But, what is entirely accurate these days? In my opinion, this is why we see lower turnout rates among young people during election cycles. The overwhelming amount of conflicting sources, and pressure to align their beliefs with their partisanship, fuels political apathy among young Americans. For younger generations to feel they can effectively shape and direct the government so that the future is promising, it’s imperative they have access to accurate information and that fake news is more easily detectable. This, I believe, will boost younger voters’ confidence that their vote is based on truthful information.
Madeleine Stone says:

March 19, 2018 at 10:15 pm

Hi Joanna,

Thanks for writing a great blog post. This idea of “fake news” is very prevalent in our society today. It is interesting to note that the younger generation uses the term “fake news” as a way to make fun of someone if they misspoke or said the wrong thing. The term has become a mockery because of how much it was used and the amount of fake news that was actually reported on media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. I also think it is somewhat ironic that this term only just became prevalent since Trump has been in office.

People may be planting fake news in order to get a better story, or draw a bigger audience, but it is having a major effect on what people actually believe. Websites like “The Onion” report only fake news and outlandish stories, that an unknown reader may take seriously. Either way people are constantly reading fake news and generating opinions based off of them, creating a misrepresentation of their beliefs. This is a huge problem in society today.

I agree with your point about fake news effecting the 2016 Presidential election. Due to the statistics, I can confidently infer that President Trump’s campaign strategists intentionally planted the fake news that favored him in order to help him win the election. The fact that this happened and work may put people under the impression that implementing fake news is okay, because the President did it so anyone can. There is clearly a strong disconnect here by the news being reported and whether or not it is true.
Chloe Blond says:

March 19, 2018 at 10:29 pm

Jojo,

I found your blog post to be incredibly interesting and I agree with the points that you raise. After reading your first paragraph and the sentence that reads, “fake news refers to news that is verifiably false that could mislead readers, whether it is deliberate and intentionally deceitful or simply bad reporting,” I couldn’t help but think of propaganda. I decided to do some research into the connection between fake news and propaganda.

Fake news, as you mention, is misleading content that is generally found on the internet, especially on social media. One analysis detailed five different types of fake news including intentionally deceptive content, jokes taken at face value, large scale hoaxes, slanted reporting of real facts, and coverage where the truth may be uncertain or contentious.

The article that I found states that “more often than not, fake news does not meet the definition of disinformation or propaganda.” The articles explains that fake news’ motives are usually financial in nature, not political, and is usually not tied to a larger agenda. However, as you mentioned in your blog post, many people associate the concept of fake news with Donald Trump. In fact, a Stanford University study in 2016 found that fake news likely played a role in the election of President Trump. It seems to me that fake news in this case, has taken the form of being political in nature. So, does this mean that this fake news can in fact be labeled as propaganda as well?

https://www.ned.org/issue-brief-distinguishing-disinformation-from-propaganda-misinformation-and-fake-news/
Paige Jordan says:

March 20, 2018 at 7:04 pm

JoJo,
Thank you for your post regarding “fake news.” In today’s society, the role of social media has a profound influence on the public’s political opinions, especially in relation to President Trump and his election. As citizens, we have the popular sovereignty to determine what we view has correct, however it is left up to the media to provide information. Unfortunately, the news-media is a for-profit business and ultimately has monetary intentions that seem to conflict with what we need to see. It is through the lens of the news-media as well as social media where details regarding current events are streamed, and often times there exists biased stories or information deemed as “fake news.” The term agenda setting comes to play when assessing the impact of media outlets on what the public then deems as important. For the stories that receive the most coverage tend to be viewed as most important, merely because the public becomes aware of them most frequently. With today’s fast-acting technology, it seems as if the events that become headlines are quickly everywhere at once. Between the news alerts that appear on smart phones, and the fast-updates on social media such as on Twitter or Facebook, the public quickly becomes opinionated almost immediately after a story is broadcasted. This opinion then often becomes posted on individual social media accounts, contributing to the mass talk which is frequently biased. I find it interesting how fast stories can become manipulated or interpreted and then appear almost everywhere, eventually adding to the controversy over “fake news.”
Austin Marsilia says:

March 21, 2018 at 5:56 pm

Joanna,
You raise some interesting points regarding American confusion around “fake news”. It is becoming increasingly difficult for consumers to find reliable sources of media that they trust. This is due to the rampant political bias that common in our modern news media. From my understanding, “fake news” is not necessarily something that is untrue, but rather a piece that is heavily biased toward a specific political agenda. For example, two separate articles, written by two different organizations of left and right political affiliation, regarding a mass shooting stopped by a good guy with a gun. The left leaning organization may publish an article that focuses on the need for gun control and the casualties suffered during the attack. The right leaning organization may discuss the need for arming and training people to react and stop these attacks as well as discussing the casualties. Both organizations covered the events but each one put its own political spin on the article, attempting to sway viewers to a certain part of the political spectrum.
You mentioned the alleged use of factually incorrect articles in favor of the Trump campaign to help secure victory. I would have liked to have been given a direct link to one of these articles because it is hard for me to believe that a reputable news source would go as far as publishing false content to help a candidate win an election. Overall, your blog was well written and a comprehensive synopsis of American confusion around the concept of “fake news”. Next time, potentially compare the modern media coverage to media in previous decades as well as a more clear cut definition of fake news.

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