These days, thanks to the invention of social media, we have become able to communicate with others easily without talking in person by posting and sharing our lives, interesting information and comments for the posts on the social media such as Facebook or Instagram. However, the problem is that although social media has made our lives more comfortable and enjoyable, it has become a serious issue in the contemporary world since it can be used as an effective means to spread the fake news easily and make a chance to manipulate people’s thoughts and opinions. In the articles, “Macron’s War on 'Fake News',” written by Yasmeen Serhan and “Fake Online News Spreads Through Social Echo Chambers,” written by Filippo Menczer, both Serhan and Menczer …show more content…
In the first article, Serhan is paying more attention to introduce solutions and indicate some possible doubts on those solutions. In the second article, Menczer is focusing on analyzing and figuring out the main reason why it is common to encounter fake news on the social media. Also, he is suggesting some solutions. In the article, “Macron’s War on 'Fake News',” Serhan mainly talked about the legislation that Macron had introduced. To begin with, she explained the legislation that the French president Macron suggested which is saying that the government has to regard the fake news as an illegal stuff and restrain it during an election. This is because, during the election, a lot of rumors, which are not based on truth, are generated a lot to try to disparage other candidates. In addition, those disinformation can function as an element that changes the result of the election since they have an influence on people’s thoughts. According to this article, the President Macron also had an experience that …show more content…
At the beginning of the article, he showed the possibility whether fake news can affect people’s thoughts or not by telling the readers that people get exposed to the fake news everyday through the social media. In addition, since any kinds of information has an influence when people create their thoughts and opinions, fake news also can affect people’s thoughts. Moreover, he said that there is a possibility that fake news could impact the result of the election, 2016 US election. After that, he explained the exploration about the reason why it is easy for social media to deliver fake news to people. To start, he elaborated an experiment which he and his colleagues performed about 10 years ago to demonstrate how the news fakers, who are the main cause of the misinformation, earn money by spreading fake news. He made a web page and posted a fake news with provocative and stimulating title which induced people to visit the page and check the contents. This is because, if more people clicked the page, he could earn more money through ads on the page. Therefore, he said that prohibiting news fakers to sell ads can be an effective solution. In addition, he explained that a number of fake news are being created and spread by social bots and fake accounts. To take a case in point, he discovered that a lot of
Through the use of ethos and logos the rhetorical purpose of the text is strongly presented to the audience. As the essay advances and his opinions are expressed, it becomes evident that Marche is in fact a supporter of the democratic party, therefore relating to his audience on a political level. Marches background implies that he’s a credible author, with a degree from the university of Toronto and a trusted platform where his work is presented. These considerable factors regarding his career and confidence in delivery, is what makes the audience take notice towards his opinions and trust what he has to say. While ethos is clearly displayed in the text, logistics play a crucial role in relation to Marches political essay. Everything stated is supported by plausible concepts and accurate information that persuades the listeners to change their minds concerning the issue of fake news. All of these factors complement one another
As the mind matures and grows, new opinions are formed with the help of the revolutionizing consciousness of humanity. The human conscious allows humanity to develop individually and gain unique cognitive patterns and thinking processes. However, these opinions can be manipulated by environmental sources, like the media. The media’s puppet strings can be used to influence the minds of the masses and control their overall thinking process. It takes away an individual’s freedom to think for themselves and form their own opinions. Manipulation is a key ingredient in attaining support for a side of an argument. News networks have this ability to twist the minds of their listeners and unconsciously force them to believe in their words. Two of the
In the current time, it seems like one cannot go a day without using at least one social media website. This might be especially true among groups of teenagers and young adults. Social media became a vital part of daily life that feeds people with several types of information constantly. Political news is a type of information that can reach the people through the means of social media. Since presidents are constantly seeking new strategies to increase their communication with the public in order to spread their political message, they utilize the different social media websites. Hence, social media became a platform to spread political message. It is not surprising that now the majority of political officials and candidates have social media accounts more than ever before, such as a Twitter account.
Presently, two hundred million users send upward of 140 million messages per day, 140-character musings studded with misspellings, slang, and abbreviations. Moreover, it includes harsh truths, memes and also lies. But it has become the most important public sphere for a global, inclusive audience. Therefore, social media sphere like twitter that has often been discredited or not valued as real public engagement has actually transformed itself into the most global, inclusive public sphere where the public is able to engage — whether truthfully or not — and to become more aware and reflective. The public informs the state and especially in a situation where the public is as polarized as in the case of the 2016 American elections, social media especially twitter can be a tool by which the public can still engage with each other to be better
During the digital age, the internet becomes more and more popular. Conversely, the circulation and the advertising revenues of newspapers are vanishing duo to the emergence of internet and audience migration. When most of the news organizations are struggling in digital age, there is a new form of news media growing up on the web that is BuzzFeed. This essay will firstly point out the analysis of this news source and then discuss the influence and contribution of BuzzFeed in the public sphere.
Propaganda controls us through our feelings of fear, happiness, and inadequacy. However, we are the ones who perpetuate propaganda – propaganda depends on us, and it is up to us as victims to put an end to this widespread information. As victims, we must question everything. We must be careful to accept the “truths” presented to us through news coverage, ads, and other sources of information. We do not question to the point of paranoid. Instead, we research. There are, and will always be, many sources to gather information from. As we research, we gain more and more information and expertise to use upon the topic; then, finally, we can reach a seasoned opinion, one with little bias. Gathering information is the best method to solving the issue of propaganda, as it starts with the correction misleading and incorrect information that is given to us. We cannot eliminate propaganda, as opinion will be a constant in our lives. However, we can shape our own opinions and notions through research. To spread true information will also benefit the cause. In this way, we will not be focusing on the subsections of misinformation, we will be able to focus on the root cause of misinformation – we can inform others who have been influenced by a campaign of
Miranda writes “Americans have now lost their faith in democracy. Their power to control government has been taken away. The political system is rigged … by a few billionaires who push their special interests while politicians continue to break their promises election after election” (Miranda, 2016). This quote represents an alternative media because, in mainstream media, journalists simply cover the elections, and explain what occurred to the public. But Miranda wants readers to understand that the elections are specifically designed for politicians to be elected for their own benefits, and not for the public, which is what they are being brainwashed
Social media has a variety of platforms, allowing individuals to freely articulate their opinions to a large audience. This tool has it’s benefits as people can join together to raise awareness to certain matters but there is also a cruel downside to the public use of social media. In Jon Ronson’s article, “How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life”, he distinctly reveals that the use of social media for debate/dissent/social and political change brings together a large audience to improve our society in difference to trolling, bullying and public shaming where there is an outstanding victim looked down upon through a widespread of individuals. These two differences stem from the belief of one that they are informing an individual of their wrong doing they are in fact leading on a greater attack than intended. The concept behind“social media is so perfectly designed to manipulate
The introduction of the internet to modern society has brought about a new age of information relation. Since there is no longer a need to wait until the next print day, news from all over the world is available at a person’s fingertips within hours or even minutes of the event. With this advent of such easily accessible information, new problems for the news media have also arisen. Aside from potentially losing good economic standing because newspapers are no longer being purchased in the quantities they used to be, the credibility of the information itself is also put into question. No one would argue that credibility of news sources is unimportant, but there is a discrepancy in what takes precedence; economy and speed or getting the information out correctly at the first publishing by taking the time to make sure all facts are checked. The importance of having a system of checks on all information submitted is paramount. People trust what they read and believe it to be so without always questioning. If all information were to not be checked thoroughly, there would be instances where people read an article only for information included to be wrong and they go on believing such information. This can be very dangerous as misinformed people make misinformed decisions. With an increase in errors being made by citizen bloggers and even major publications, many are worried that journalistic ethics and credibility in the news media are being sacrificed in order to maintain swiftness in the news circuit and to retain personal profits. Though getting information to the masses quickly is a major part of the media’s importance, this should not mean that the credibility of that information being presented should be sacrificed for it...
Recently, the term fake news has gained a mass amount of publicity, especially around the time of the 2016 presidential election. Fake news can be interpreted in many ways. In its simplest form, fake news is exactly what the name suggests. It is false information meant to be understood as real, credible news. It is usually intentionally made, but can sometimes be accidentally created by misinterpreted information.
Social media can impact a life of an individual at many levels. On social media, each individual has the power to be influential and important. There is a freedom of expression on soci...
From the beginning days of the printing press to the always evolving internet of present day, the media has greatly evolved and changed over the years. No one can possibly overstate the influential power of the new media of television on the rest of the industry. Television continues to influence the media, which recently an era of comedic television shows that specialize in providing “fake news” has captivated. The groundbreaking The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and its spin-off The Colbert Report have successfully attracted the youth demographic and have become the new era’s leading political news source. By parodying news companies and satirizing the government, “fake news” has affected the media, the government, and its audience in such a way that Bill Moyers has claimed “you simply can’t understand American politics in the new millennium without The Daily Show,” that started it all (PBS).
Nowadays the media have transformed its main mission of reporting news that actually happened in an accurate and objective way into covering stirring and controversial issues as news stories due to capitalistic motives. Moreover, today’s media took the motto “If it bleeds it leads” as a criteria to report any story. The aim of following this motto was to achieve high viewership rates and as a result gain more advertisers which will ultimately increase the profits. However, this motto changed the media from reporting facts into reporting sensational-fearful news. Thus, this paper will demonstrate the effects of sensational news, and how the media plays on the cultivation theory using sensationalism to increase viewers.
Social media is a quick and easy way to spread news and information across the world. However, the common saying, “you can’t believe everything you see on the internet,” is true. Social media allows the spread of unreliable and false information. A study done by the American Press Institute found, “64% of people who use Twitter for news say that they have encountered something they "later discovered wasn't true," and 16% of Twitter news users say that "they had retweeted or posted a tweet they later discovered to be false” (API). This can have various effects as people are falsely educated which can lead to some bad or unnecessary decisions.
Chomsky examines and explores the use of propaganda in the mass media. His focus remains on the “elite” as he would call them, or the corporations and politicians that control the mass media in our country. He speaks of how the U.S. government used propaganda in order to gain support for our country’s involvement in wars from Wilson’s presidency to Bush Sr., and now in our so-called “War on Terror” brought upon by George W. Bush. He explains how he believes this elite group of people control the minds of those that are less educated, and without an open minds. He believes that propaganda has been used through the mass media to guide this population towards supporting political interests.