By Brianna Stevens | Observer Contributor
On March 2, Assistant Professor of Communications at Fitchburg State University, Kyle Moody, spoke at Athol Public Library about how to decipher the difference between real and fake news.
Fake news, as defined by Dan Faltesek of the University of Oregon, is “social media news stories that feature sensational headlines referring to untrue information. These stories are produced by [individuals] who are not mandated to do journalism and are remunerated by online ad networks.”
As most people are aware, the idea of fake news became problematic when President Trump began voicing his opinion on the matter. The real problem is that Donald Trump himself, in a way, is the source of the fake news. Not to say that the president himself is spewing falsehoods, but more that he has used sensationalized news stories to gain popularity.
“Donald Trump is more famous than anybody ever has been in modern human history,” said Moody. “He is viewed, therefore, by multiple people with a variety of other ideological lenses, and because everybody has an opinion on him, those opinions drive clicks.”
News stories online gain popularity by the number of clicks they receive. Of course, online news sources that do not have to fact check will run sensationalized headlines because the more clicks their site receives, the more money they on ad placement and views.
Moody began his discussion by giving the audience four choices of headlines, asking which was the fake story. The majority of the room chose the most outrageous sounding headline, which turned out to be true. The false headline was one that sounded as if it could be probable, and likely.
Moody described how the headline came about being published. A reporter sent a message to the editor of Infowars, to test the editorial process. His message simply stated that a video was found of an old episode of The Apprentice, in which Trump used a derogatory term. Moody said “He fabricated the entire story just to see if somebody would run it.”
In a series of emails that were leaked on wikileaks, it was assumed that certain government officials were involved in the sex trafficking business out of the basement of Comet Ping Pong, a pizza parlor in Washington D.C. This sensationalized story is easily pushed aside as false for the majority of people. Unfortunately, one individual took this headline very seriously. He went to Comet Ping Pong with a loaded gun, asked to see the basement in a building in which no basement exists, and fired the gun at the ceiling. When he was arrested and questioned, he said he wanted to “uncover the conspiracy.”
For reasons like this, fake news is dangerous. The way we as consumers can combat this is by increasing our media literacy. We must demand better media coverage. Stop saying “The Media,” in reference to the unified organized body of persons who present information to you. In reality, a person or group of people who are creating fake news are “not a part of an established media organization,” Moody said. “Different outlets have different goals.”
Many media organizations are biased, or have very low journalistic standards. In order to get accurate information, it is necessary to read different sources and get a well-rounded view of the world, taking in opposing and supporting opinions from your own.
It is difficult to filter through the proverbial “storm” to find the truth. Fake news is an ever present issue, and it is our job as media consumers to research for ourselves and find out the truth.
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