Unbelievable and Fake News: How to Convince People Report (Assessment)

“Unbelievable News”

Summary

The phenomenon of fake news has grown out of proportion recently, with people believing false information almost instantly. According to a recent article addressing the issue, Facebook has been affected by the plague of fabricated information, and its numerous gullible users have been tricked into believing it (“Unbelievable News?”). While discerning the truth in the flood of ridiculously false information is rather simple at first, users soon succumb to the phenomenon known as the “illusory truth effect” (“Unbelievable News?”). As a result, they develop the tendency to believe the ideas that they would have discarded before exposure to a vast range of falsified information.

In addition, the repetitive nature of the stories that people read on modern media affects the perception of information. After a certain number of reiterations, readers will eventually perceive a certain statement, no matter how questionable it might seem, as possible. The specified assumption has been verified in a study where participants were provided with repeated news, as well as the ones that were started only once.

According to the article, the study showed that the participants were inclined to believe the repetitive information to a greater degree (“Unbelievable News?”). Proving false information wrong is unlikely to have any effects. Quite the contrary, the specified step is likely to anger people and convince them to believe the false source even more (“Unbelievable News?”). At present, there is no efficient solution to the problem.

Sources

To support their statement, the author of the article refers to the sources such as Buzzfeed and CNN. While the former serves as the example of falsified information, the latter supports the author’s argument regarding the efforts made to address the problem. By providing examples of both false and trustworthy media, the author makes their argument objective.

“Fake News”

Summary

In hindsight, the rise in exposure to false news was easily predictable. President John Adams wrote that the influence of fabricated news stories would only increase in the future, and he was completely correct in his assumptions (Mansky). The very concept of the press and the news as media dates back to ancient times, which means that distorting the truth to champion a particular cause will always remain relevant. Therefore, to understand why the modern media is filled with falsified stories and downright absurd information, as well as to define the reasons why people believe it, one will have to consider the history of media.

While studying the history of false news is critical to developing a better understanding of their current forms, it is also necessary to explore falsified stories that emerge in modern media. The taxonomy is built for distinguishing between different definitions of fabricated media based on their purpose and content. For instance, news satire can be seen as a self-conscious attempt at creating false news for humorous and deconstructive purposes.

Parody news stories, in turn, also have a social function as the means of mocking a specific situation or conflict. Propaganda is also a well-known method of creating made-up stories to convince the target demographic to make specific choices. However, false news evolves fast, making it increasingly difficult to identify fabricated stories. Nonetheless, these are the examples of free speech and communication, which have to be tolerated as per the existing concept of free speech (Mansky).

Sources

In the article, the author uses several references to prove her point and show the effects of falsified news. One of them allows providing the story of the arson of Hutchinson’s house as an example, whereas the second one cites the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. Both sources give a historical perspective on the problem and offer readers to expand their knowledge range on the subject matter.

Works Cited

Mansky, Jacqueline. “The Age-Old Problem of ‘Fake News’.” Smithsonian.com, 2018. Web.

“Unbelievable News? Read It Again and You Might Think It’s True.” TheConversation.com. 2016. Web.