Impact of Fake News on Society

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FAKE NEWS.
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Introduction
Most of the things we might be reading online particularly on the social media might
seem true. However, they are often not. Fake news can be described as stories that are created
in a deliberate move to misinform or deceive the audience. In most cases, such stories are
created in an effort to influence the views of the people, push certain political agenda or even
cause confusion. In some other case, it is often conducted for profitable business for both
online and mainstream publishers. Fake news can send deceptive messages that appear
authentic by using reputable news organisations to send certain messages. Fake news is not
new, however, it has become a huge subject in recent years. Traditionally people only got
news from trusted sources, reporters and mainstream media are often required to follow strict
rules of practice. However, nowadays we have multiple channels that have facilitated new
ways of publishing, sharing and consuming of information and information with little to no
regulations of editorial standards. A majority of people now often get their news from social
media sites and networks and thus it can be a huge challenge to determine whether stories are
credible or not. Overload of information and the general lack of proper understanding
regarding how the internet operates has also played a huge role in the increase in fake news.
Social media sites can contribute to increasing the reach of these kinds of stories.
Impact of fake news on the society
Fake news cannot be fought by regulations alone. For instance, in mid-2017, the Qatar
state news agency alleged that its Twitter account had been compromised , and the intruders
had published fake comments criticising key aspects of the US and Arab gulf policies
towards Iran. Even though the company quickly labeled the comments as false, this didn’t
prevent other countries such as UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severing diplomatic ties with the
country. On the social level, societies have now been obsessed with celebrity concepts.

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Celebrity concepts have been filled with fake stories on a daily basis. Even though some of
the scandals are often farfetched that they would clearly appear to be unreal, more readers
and audience are not able to differentiate fake from real issues. Fake news often appears to be
authentic than the truth and as a result led to racism, harassment, and destruction of
reputations. Such instances have clearly demonstrated that fake news is a huge issue in
today’s society than it has ever been before due to the multiplication of channels and
accessibility causing any information to be “on-hand.” It is affecting people due to constant
confusion. However, many people now believe that they can identify fake news based on the
reasonability of the reporting, or credible sources. However, it can be acknowledged that it
can be challenging to actually see what part of the news has been changed. Any information
can be considered fake by just having the slightest bit of alterations to the actual story
(Beech, 2018). Fake news is very similar to gossip or rumours because of the large
percentage of it being real.
The competition of journalism has caused multiple things to be mixed up and making
it even much harder to solve. The reason for this rivalry is the intention of news sources to be
the major headliners for every story, whether authentic or not. Nowadays, news media is
going even much further to change the entire story in order to fit their agenda and draw
attention to its source. Thus making them more profit out of it. Therefore, readers ought not
to be influenced by whatever they encounter. Sadly, things are changing and in most cases, it
is not for the better because things that were not a big issue before, but now they are.
Information being readily available at any moment has caused “fake news” to be a huge
concern. Being cautious of what the audience receives and locating reliable sources will assist
eliminate such issues? Fake news is just another different way of classifying bad journalism.
What are your action and plan?