Do you all think that all of the information that you have been seeing nowadays is all the truth? It is obviously not. Because that information whether online or offline can be true information but there is also Fake News in the society too. Some people in the society cannot tell which one is true or false information. This seems to be more dangerous than you think because it causes many problems in various aspects and the below information might help you to avoid yourself from that misinformation.
What is Fake news?
Fake news is the information that is delivered to the receiver whether online or in the real life world. But it usually can be seen in the online world on many platforms. Why? Because in order to publish news in real life, that information should be approved by the editor first. While, the online news no need anyone to approve. So, they can post or publish anywhere and anytime. Moreover, most of them are published by unknown to well known publishers. All of the untruthful contents that have been made sometimes are for the publishers’ benefits in many aspects.
It can be sure that some of the false contents or information are about bias such as political and business bias. Due to high competition these days. More than that ,without any bias, some publishers just only want to gain some engagement and clicking rates. So, when they have gained good feedback, they usually continue doing it without any hesitation or the journalist or publisher does not check that information well enough before publishing. As we can see in many events that always have some Fake News in those situations. Due to this, fake news is around us in our daily life all day and all night and it can be in our timeline.Then, it simply mixes up with the real one and can easily confuse us at the same time.
Fake news and their types
As we can see, fake news has a variety of types. So, we can categorize types of fake news into these 5 types
– Satire or Parody
– Misleading news ( seems true information but use wrong context)
– Sloppy reporting
– Misleading news (not base on facts)
– Intentionally deceptive
All of these types are what you can see in your everyday life easily. It is hard to avoid but if you know it would be better for you in order to know what it is up to.
The ways of These day society & Fake news now
As we all know, we are currently living in the digital era, which allows us to deliver and receive all of the information rapidly, such a good point. People use all of the internet platforms to connect with each other. So, this is what we call the borderless world where people can contact and deliver the information to others in many ways. Unfortunately, there is a fact that “Everything has upsides and downsides. Nowadays’ social media can be a really good example for this fact. Because of the speed of social media, misinformation can grow as fast as the internet does. This is why Fake News is in our daily lives.
Sadly, some group or big group of news consumers do not know about the information, which they have seen while scrolling their screen, can rely on or not. Because sometimes it seems to be true but sometimes it is not. According to this, publishers can simply use this weakness to spread false information faster. But it is not the end because it is human nature that when people have received the information, word of mouth has happened and spread furthermore. This could be great if the news or information that they spread is the truth. In reverse, if it is fake news, it will become a tool to destroy the credibility of the news on social media. Because this can really have a big impact on society when false information spreads in the public.
How can fake news be harmful and affect our society?
In my view, I can simply see that the main purpose of fake news is to mislead people by giving them untruthful information and belief. So this can lead to this question “ how well do you think you know the internet?”. Because some of the people on the internet can easily fall victim to fake news. Is that harmful? My answer is gonna be truly yes. Let’s see how dangerous it is.
If you are a person who is faced with some disease or illness and you want to find some information about medical treatment but it is so sad to say that you accidentally found misinformation on the internet. This can lead you to risk your life because of that information which gives you a wrong decision.
But If you are a person who is concerned about mental health, you should know that fake news is also one of the factors that lead to cyberbullying and conflict in our society. I can see that when there is some fake news about celebrities or even unknown people, some group of people in the cyber world tend to rapidly attack them without any confirmation from those people. And this can happen everywhere ,in the workplace or even school. More than that this can cause harassment and abuse, those things affect the mental health of the victim. Even the information is false but when it was published into public, people already remembered in that way and were already judging those people. This can affect their feelings and their mental illness.
Please note that fake news can also affect in a political way. Especially in the election period, it’s the beginning of some fake news on the internet. Because misinformation can obviously affect the election result. This shows that fake news is not only a spreading of misinformation but also infringing the human right, a right to vote for the election. So, this is very sad that citizens are faced with unfair and dishonesty.
More importantly, most people can access the internet. Which means that children are one of the groups that mainly use online too. So, in that age they might not have enough experience to scan the information which they can believe. According to this, it is dangerous for children to get misinformation easily. Not only they get false information but if that information can affect their beliefs, the way that makes them believe in the wrong way.
And this can affect those overall of online news platforms. Which is about their credibility because when people have a not so good experience in facing fake information. So, they can stereotype that information based online has a bad reputation. Which is not true because there are many reliable online news platforms on the internet.
How can we notice Fake News
– First thing first, you need to know where that information comes from because the source is very the first thing that can show you their credibility how much you can rely on this information. If their platform is well known, it could be a really great choice for you to choose one.
– Next, if you want to make more sure that the source you have got can truly rely on or not. You can search for other websites or platforms in order to recheck and if the information is likely to be the same as what the source that you have received. It might guarantee or make you more sure that the information is reliable.
– And the most important thing ,I want to recommend to you to be aware all the time and realize every content or information that you have got. Which, you can see something that might not make sense or seem to be surreal. You may notice some points and you can use those two points that I have mentioned above. This skill is really useful, especially in today’s society. So, you can simply avoid that misinformation both online and offline.
These day movement
Fortunately, I can see some movement in our society as some people tend to encourage people in the society about Fake News through every online platform. So, this information can also spread to the society. This shows that people realize and not normalize misinformation or Fake News.As what I foresee the impact of Fake News in our world today. So, when they help to use their voices for better things and society. This could make people, who have seen this movement, change the way they consume the news or information. And this could bring us to a better society whether online or offline.
All of this is to encourage people to know more about the Fake News in the society. These days we cannot deny that the internet allows us to consume any information more easily. So, the things that we can do is to know ,notice, and think all the time when you spend time on your own screen before you click like and share that information to your friends and community.
