History of Fake News vs. Editorials
Fake news is a challenge, which has found a global resonance. It emerged because of the oversaturation with news and information on the Web and potential access to a wide audience. In this way, the history of fake news epidemic began with the introduction of the Internet in everyday life around ten years ago, and every country has its own story that brought discredit to media (Connolly et al.). It is especially critical in the case of newspapers and national television. From this perspective, in journalism, this problem emerged at the beginning of the nineteenth century with the publishing of a fake article on political developments in one of the American newspapers (Uberti). Nowadays, it is as well most commonly associated with politics and economy with the same purpose as before – propaganda. Fake news was and is published to gain the desired audience and distribute information via media because of the expensiveness of advertising (Carson).
Standards and Barriers of Fake News and Editorials
Due to the criticality of the challenge of fake news, editorials developed standards and barriers to guarantee the relevance and accuracy of presented information. For example, most of them carry out pre-release reviews and assessing alternative facts. More than that, providing arguments and evidence is another common standard among editorials (Khawaja). These standards are as well as barriers to publishing fake news. Some editorials implement automated verification procedures, which serve as additional barriers for publishing fake news. However, in case of inadequate verification, personal checking of information by professionals is recommended to guarantee the relevance and accuracy of news. Still, not all social media develop standards for verifying information. For instance, Facebook executives opposed the necessity in such standards, as the social network is a platform for sharing information users find relevant. Nevertheless, they recognized they were wrong and began working on introducing them (Prokop). Finally, it is essential to accept the fact that no standards assure the correctness of data. In this way, critical thinking and common sense are imperative.
Anytime-Anyplace Access to Information
Dynamic implementation of the newest technologies in everyday life has changed the way people perceive and absorb information. It was not long ago that fixed-line access to the Internet was a norm. However, nowadays, wireless connection gains popularity faster compared to the fixed-line when it was first introduced (Walsh). Laptops, tablets, and smartphones are growing more popular, thus replacing desktops computers. In this way, this trend towards the growing popularity of Wi-Fi created the challenge known as anytime-anyplace access to information. It is widespread in different spheres of human life and activities, including education, work, health care, research and technologies, and scholarly activities as well as management and economics due to faster and more effective distribution of information to distant territories (Preissl et al. 179).
Even though these developments increase access to education and employment, they lead to significant decreases in performance and outcomes due to the impossibility of implementing strict control measures. Therefore, anytime-anyway access to information is a modern-day myth when it comes to online work and education (Fielding 103). More than that, this access is two-way, which means that it jeopardizes the security of private and sensitive information due to the potential remote access of cybercriminals via wireless networks (Terezinho). Finally, it deforms information literacy because of oversaturation with information and the problem of fake news on the Web (Walsh).
Works Cited
Carson, James. “What Is Fake News? Its Origins and How It Grew in 2016.” Telegrap. 2017, Web.
Connolly, Kate, et al. “Fake News: An Insidious Trend That’s Fast Becoming a Global Problem.”The Guardian. 2016, Web.
Fielding, Heather. “’Any Time, Any place’: The Myth of Universal Access and the Semiprivate Space of Online Education.” Computers and Composition, vol. 40, no. 1, 2016, 103-114.
Khawaja, Irwan. “Fake News: All the Counterfactual Conditions Fit to Print.”Irfan Khawaja. 2016, Web.
Preissl, Brigitte, et al. E-Life After the Dot Com Bust. Springer, 2013.
Prokop, Andrew. “Facebook Exec: ‘We resisted having standards on fake news. That was wrong.’”Vox. 2016, Web.
Terezinho, Fabio. “Remote Access, Any Time, Any Place.”ISA, 2012, Web.
Uberti, David. “The Real History of Fake News.”Columbia Journalism Review. 2016, Web.
Walsh, Andrew. “Martini Information Literacy: How Does “Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere” Access to Information Change What Information Literacy Means?”University of Huddersfield. 2016, Web.