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Katelyn Paul

Ms.Hierholzer

English 111

21 February 2019

Fake News In Today’s Social Media

The news is a vital way for everyday people to find information about the world they live

in. Wars, elections, stock markets, and weather are just a fraction of the information we turn to

the news for. Anytime there is a pandemic such as a spread of disease or terrorist attack, most

people hurry to look at some kind of news outlet for critical information. “Misinformation on

social media has caused widespread alarm in recent years.” as stated by Allcott, Hunt, et al.

(2018). With the rise of the fake news in all forms of media, especially social, people may form

opinions and behave in a certain way based on information that is not factual.

Fake news, as described by Penn State University, is “Sources that intentionally fabricate

information, disseminate deceptive content, or grossly distort actual news reports.”(“Library

Guides:”, 2019). When news of such is created, it causes people to spread information that is

incorrect and to make assumptions that are not fact-based. Social media is such a big platform

that posts are shared world-wide instantly and it is practically impossible to stop the spread once

started. Depending on where you stand on topics, such as politics, religion, and race, fake news

can affect you in different ways.

The 2016 election between, the now President Trump and political opponent Hillary

Clinton began the uptick in fake news. In an article by Knight Foundation, it is said that there

was more than 10 million tweets that connected to over 700,000 users had linked to as many as

600 sources of fake news during the 2016 election (Knight Foundation, 2018). Even after the

election, there was about four million tweets that were connected to fake news in 2017. This
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shows that during and even after important events, fake news may continue to spread causing

biases and misunderstandings that are unwarranted. Two psychologists, Gordon Pennycook and

David Rand, have taken a detailed look at fake news and its impact. They state that, “ One group

claims that our ability to reason is hijacked by our partisan convictions: that is, we’re prone to

rationalization. The other group — to which the two of us belong — claims that the problem is

that we often fail to exercise our critical faculties: that is, we’re mentally lazy.” (Dr. Pennycook

& Dr. Rand, 2019) They make an important point that some people who heavily identify with

one group, such as Republican or Democrat may not even check to see if the source is reliable, as

long as the article is for their side they just “rationalize” what is correct. On the other hand there

are just people who are lazy and don’t check to see if the information they are receiving is

factual. The age group that typically falls for fake news is the elderly (Renner, 2019). That is an

important issue because one of the largest groups of voters are those who are elderly. Many

voters in this demographic may be easily taken advantage of and don’t understand or reason

what fake news is. This means if they are getting an abundance of fake news, results of an

election may dramatically skew one way or the other.

Recently, an act of fake news was when a video of students from Covington Catholic

High School stood in front of Nathan Phillips who was playing a drum in the face of one of the

students. When the video had first come out, most of the articles were against the students,

convincing people who read the articles or watched the shortened video, that the students were

taunting and mocking Mr. Philips. It had turned out that the students were at the Lincoln

Memorial for the March for Life Movement and it was Mr.Phillips, who was there for The

Indigenous Peoples March, that had approached the students (Jack & Emily, 2019). An article

that was deemed fake news was by The National Catholic Reporter called, “Catholic school

apologizes after clip emerges of students mocking Native Americans.”(Boorstein, 2019). This

article has fake news all throughout, causing the reader to form an opinion of the Catholic boys,
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causing a negative view of them in the situation. Comments such as, “As the crowd continues to

heckle and chant, Phillips stares back and continues to drum, seemingly unfazed. But his

companions appear to grow increasingly agitated as the crowd encircles them.”(Jack & Emily,

2019) and “A Catholic high school in Kentucky is apologizing after videos surfaced of students

dressed in the school's garb confronting and mocking a group of Native Americans”(Jack &

Emily, 2019). Both examples from this article use biased words that make the report more one

sided and attempts to evoke an emotional response from the reader. This emotional response

would favor Mr. Phillips who was discovered to be the aggressor in reality. Many news reports,

social media, and even celebrities, relied on this misinformation to form opinions and sway their

audience and followers. Simply doing some unbiased fact checking would have prevented much

of this fake news. The student at the center of the fake news is now suing many news agencies

and celebrities for defamation of character.

After completing my research on fake news, I conclude many points: there is fake news

everywhere in social media, fake news is on the rise, and that even reliable news outlets can get

wrong information. This research has opened my eyes and should do the same for others. The

realization of how we can be manipulated or not be critical enough when using social media for

the purpose of news is astounding. By being more critical of what is read online we can cut down

the amount of fake information spread through the Internet, and what individuals should

remember is that anything can be fake news. That is why you should always check your sources

and make sure what you are reading is backed up by facts.

Works Cited

Allcott, Hunt, et al. “Trends in the Diffusion of Misinformation on Social Media.” Stanford,

Oct. 2018, web.stanford.edu/~gentzkow/research/fake-news-trends.pdf.

Boorstein, Michelle. “Kentucky Bishop Apologizes to Covington Catholic Students, Says

He Expects Their Exoneration.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 25 Jan. 2019,

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www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/01/24/third-kentucky-bishop-apologizes-

covington-catholic-high-school-students/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.908f38168eb5.

Jenkins, Jack, and Emily McFarlan Miller. “Catholic School Apologizes after Clip Emerges

of Students Mocking Native Americans.” National Catholic Reporter, 19 Jan. 2019,

www.ncronline.org/news/people/catholic-school-apologizes-after-clip-emerges-students-

mocking-native-americans.

Knight Foundation. “Disinformation, 'Fake News' and Influence Campaigns on Twitter.”

Knight Foundation, 4 Oct. 2018, www.knightfoundation.org/reports/disinformation-fake-

news-and-influence-campaigns-on-twitter.

“Library Guides:” 19th Century America - American Social History by Eras and Decades -

Library Guides at Penn State University, 23 Jan. 2019, guides.libraries.psu.edu/fakenews.

“News Sources: ”ResearchGuides, 18 Feb.2019,

guides.lib.umich.edu/c.php?g=283063&p=4471741.

Owen, Laura Hazard. “Do People Fall for Fake News Because They're Partisan or Because

They're Lazy? Researchers Are Divided.” Nieman Lab, 25 Jan. 2019, 9:37 a.m.,

www.niemanlab.org/2019/01/do-people-fall-for-fake-news-because-theyre-partisan-or-

because-theyre-lazy-researchers-are-divided/.

Pennycook, Gordon, and David Rand. “Why Do People Fall for Fake News?” The New York

Times, The New York Times, 19 Jan. 2019,

www.nytimes.com/2019/01/19/opinion/sunday/fake-

news.html#click=https://t.co/nj8eIZMoI1.

Renner, Ben. “Study: Sharing Of Fake News 'Relatively Rare,' But Seniors Fall Victim

Most Frequently.” Study Finds, 12 Jan. 2019, www.studyfinds.org/sharing-fake-news-

relatively-rare-seniors-victim-most-frequenlty/.
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