With the revolution of social media and digital journalism during the last few years, American society has been witnessing an onslaught of fake news. It comes from every corner that we gather our information. Social media, television, radio, podcasts, video, and the Internet all play a major part in the never-ending nightmare that is 21st-century fake news.
But, now knowing that fake news is everywhere, is it detrimental to any individual or group’s choice-making futures? I say NO. Allow me a few minutes to prove my argument as to why fake news should, rather than destroy you, elevate you to make better decisions.
The Benefits of Fake News
Recent technology, beginning with the Internet in the mid-90s, has ushered in free-flowing information in vast amounts and at such a high speed that people find it very difficult to keep up. Sorting out the good news from the bad news is tedious and time-consuming. People would rather simply trust any news source that has taken the time to proffer interesting news. This is not good. You become bamboozled and led astray down a corridor of opinionated information without any evidence as a basis.
Fool me Once
Trickery can happen to anyone. Trustworthy people tend to suffer deception often. So, let’s say that you saw a popular post on social media about how vaccines have horrible side effects. Rather than curing an issue, the vaccine, as seen on social media, gave you an illness worse than the one it treated. It was viewed many times by others throughout the world. Thousands of users commented on the post as well, making the story even more credible.
Because of this, you cancel your appointment to get a tetanus shot. However, a week later you cut your hand on a rusty fence. You get a serious infection and almost have to amputate the entire arm. A few days later, the vaccine post was discredited.
You almost lost your arm!
How do you feel now? Because of your ordeal, I doubt you or anyone who happened to endure a situation like you will allow themselves to be tricked again. I hope.
Not only was your health at risk because of this fake news, but your money, your time, and your pride, as well. When the dust settles and you get your doctor’s bill in for several hundred dollars, you will feel the effects of how fake news can shift your life in terrible ways. But there is a silver lining to this.
Consider it a learning experience. Don’t believe what you read online, especially social media.
No More Short-Term Thinking
Consider fake news a test. Better yet, consider fake news as an insult to your intelligence. That should make it hit harder. Social media thinks you are naive. You will believe anything.
You shouldn’t. People should be greater skeptics than they ever were.
What fake news has done has forced society to become investigative journalists. This is a good thing. If you have an Internet connection, you can find out more factual information within seconds.
Short-term thinking, in general, is a characteristic that rarely promotes anything positive. Most poor decisions come from people making important decisions on the spot instead of taking a few minutes to think things through. We all have done it. However, when it comes to the amount of information we have at our fingertips, we have no excuses when we make bad choices because we should have been thinking long-term.
Fake news forces us to think of consequences that will come from believing the news given to us. Long-term thinkers suffer the least problems and benefit from the best results. If you have been hoodwinked by fake news in the past, take it as a lesson that you should invest more of your precious time into long-term thinking.
Nothing New
Fake news is everywhere. It always has been and it always will be. Forever. You have to get used to it.
From reporters indulging in yellow journalism to the plethora of info product nonsense you might catch during sleepless nights, there is always someone out there trying to deceive you. Con men and swindlers, liars and snake oil salesmen are out to make a profit from you. Or even worse, they are miserable themselves and hope that you suffer the same misery.
“Some people just want to watch the world burn.”—Alfred from The Dark Knight (2008)
The rapid creation of technology in the last 30 years, especially affordable and portable technology, such as your average smartphone, has rocketed people’s ability to manufacture fake news. Additionally, video and image software applications, such as Adobe’s Photoshop, can manipulate any image so well it can appear legitimate. These are issues you—meaning journalists and civilians—should take into consideration when collecting facts for a future decision.
What Fake News means for Journalism
The last few years have seen newspaper companies collapse because of the extreme digital revolution that has arrived. Journalism isn’t going anywhere, but it is changing. It is becoming more independent because of the technology that any individual can now wield. Whereas just a few years prior, only cable television allowed society to get the news, the Internet has made it possible for a simple blog/vlog to become a major conduit for newsgathering.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as we embrace it.
And because of digital journalism, there are various and immediate methods to combat news you deem as possibly fake. My first suggestion is to use your nearest search engine. If you come across something that is surprisingly interesting, rather than just take that one site’s word for it, Google it. Sift through numerous other sites that have written about the topic, as well. Compare facts, stories, and reports. If there are multiple articles on the same topic, all with the same facts, then you can likely take the story as credible.
With the worldwide knowledge that fake news on the Internet has been an issue that affects your personal and professional atmospheres, I believe that the frequency of fake news problems will decline. Awareness has been brought to the forefront of the general public in the last few years. Journalists, both freelancers, and institutions, are held more liable than before for the production of news that has elements of untruth, let alone entire stories based on fake news.
Along with the introduction of smartphones and YouTube channels that can relay news in an instance with the help of an alert button on your smartphone app, fake news will reduce. With so many people covering the same topic all at the same time, it will be highly unlikely that untruthful reports of a topic will go far. Fake news only exists if you allow it to exist.
That’s it.
If you enjoyed this article, I have a few other articles you might like. Click here to learn about fact-checking strategies. And click here to learn about how social media can help journalists.
Poynter, an excellent online media site, especially for learning about copy editing, is a place all aspiring journalists should visit. Click here.
If you have a completed manuscript and are looking to have it professionally edited before self-publishing it or sending it to a literary agent, you can visit my Services page for more information.
And if you want to improve the suspense in your fiction, you can download my eBook on Amazon here.
Visit my YouTube channel here.