Fake News, How to Spot and Prevent it
How can you tell if news is fake? Can you?
Ami Zensius, Media Studies teacher at Las Lomas, defined fake news as, “news that is reported as true, that hasn’t been sourced, that hasn’t been checked, backed up or is overly emotionally charged.”
Fake news gets made because people have a plan to create stories to gain other’s support or opinion to match their own, another reason may be that “creating fake news is just for profit,” said Martha Ross, a local journalist.
An example of fake news that was recently widely spread according to factcheck.org, was from the news channel WTOE 5 news.
The article’s headline was “Pope Francis Shocks World, Endorses Donald Trump for President, Releases Statement”. The article states that the Pope endorsed Donald Trump “as a concerned citizen of the world.”
After many people started asking questions about the article, the Pope clarified his opinion.
“A person who only thinks about only building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian.”
Although the story reached many people it was eventually clarified that is was a fake news article.
The WTOE 5 news does claim to be a fake news website, but readers have to go about the page to find that out.
A lot of these types of articles have shown up due to the recent election.
Fake news is harmful to those who wish to find out factual information.
Fake news is harder to identify than you might think, because it can be displayed in many different ways that are devious.
It can either be completely false, or propaganda, which can be slightly more obvious than the other side of fake news that is more along the lines of a sloppy use of data or imprecise statements that can be misleading.
“It is undermining professional journalists who are doing their best to report the facts as they see them and journalism used to be nonpartisan, unbiased and objective and now it has become so opinionated and it’s just wrong.
Journalists are supposed to just report the facts and so fake news to me undermines all those professional journalists who are doing their best,” said Christine Donohoe, a Las Lomas parent.
After sharing a fake news article with fellow classmates, a professional journalist and some local parents, they shared their opinions on fake news and the fake news article.
This article stated that more than a dozen of ballot boxes were found in a storage warehouse in Franklin County, Ohio.
The ballot boxes were said to have possibly held uncounted and unregistered votes for Hillary Clinton and other democratic candidates.
“So it says that she planned it, but then didn’t got through with it and so it could bring a good side of Hillary Clinton saying she could have done this but then decided not to do it,” said sophomore Jessica Nelson.
This fake news article confused just about everyone who read it.
“I don’t understand” said sophomore Mckenzie Cooke. Others figured out that it was fake almost instantly.
“I think it’s, what do they call it right now? Fake news,” said another local parent, Kevin Donohoe.
Sophomore Bryson Keyes wouldn’t trust this as a reliable news source.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “It looks kind of sketchy.”
Fake news is harmful to people who want to know the truth. “It’s a danger to society. People’s opinions can be shaped by misinformation and even governmental policy can be altered” said local professional travel journalist, Anne Chalfant.
“Because they want to sway people to their point of view,” said Christine Donohoe when asked why people create fake news. “I think fake news is a horrible byproduct of social media.”
Anyone can create fake news.
With everything that is out on social media with the recent election and many other subjects, it has become more and more easy for people to sit down and state falsehoods as facts.
Q&A with Mrs. Walfoort
Q: What made you realize the importance of helping students understand what fake news is?
A: I have to say it’s not just students, it’s everyone. Fake news has always been out there but now with social media, it’s gone ballistic.
Q: What is your role as a librarian, advocating against fake news?
A: I teach students, when they spot fake news, not to share it. I want students to understand that an opinion is not equally valid as facts or opinion.
Q: Do you feel it has gotten harder to identify fake news since the improvement of technology?
A: It takes time to identify fake news and with clickbait, many are too quick to assume that it coule be true, but the responsibility is on all of us to detect fake news.
Q: Do you have any quick tips on how to identify fake news?
A: Gauge your emotional reaction to what you’re reading. If it is really strong, check into the story. Think about how people encounter the story, is it through social media?...through easy sharing?
