A Report on the Impact of Fake News on Democracy and Society

This report delves into the pervasive issue of fake news and its detrimental effects on democratic societies. It begins by defining fake news and outlining strategies for identifying it, emphasizing the importance of verifying sources, scrutinizing headlines, and checking author credibility. The report then examines a real-world example, the Pepsi syringe hoax, to illustrate how fake news can spread rapidly and damage reputations. The core of the report focuses on the profound impact of fake news on democracy, particularly during elections, where misinformation can sway public opinion and lead to flawed decisions. The report highlights the need for critical thinking and media literacy to combat the spread of fake news and protect the integrity of democratic processes. The report references several sources to support its arguments.

Running head: INTRODUCTION TO GOVERNMENT
Introduction to Government
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1INTRODUCTION TO GOVERNMENT
In this digital era, online fake news has become very common. Facebook, Twitter and
other social networking sites have started publishing misleading or false news. Fake news
stories reach people more quickly than real news. Such stories are satirical and tend to
provide the readers with more fun and entertainment. The effort is to fool the readers and
hide the truth from them. There are several strategies one can save himself/herself from fake
news. Firstly, while observing a news one should check and cross check the sources. The
source must be legitimate, authentic and reliable (Hunt).
Secondly, one should read beyond the headline of the news. Fake stories tend to have
various revealing signs in the texts. Thirdly, checking the author of the story is most
important. In most of the fake news cases, the authors are not even real. Fourthly, checking
the sources may reveal the fact whether the news is real or not. Moreover, checking the date
is important as most of the fake stories are not fully unreal; rather it distorts the reality. Fake
news is mostly one sided and biased towards a particular individual or scenario
(Youtube.com).
The crisis which involved the famous aerated drink, Pepsi marred its image to a huge
extent. There was no authentic source of the report. There was a rumor that a syringe was
found in the Pepsi bottles. The news circulated online in a huge manner and fifty reports were
published tampering Diet Pepsi, which turned into a hoax. Later the company provided
reports, conveying that the whole story was unreal and fabricated (Snopes.com). Firstly, fake
news has no authentic sources and author. It was totally framed in order to fool the readers
and mar the image of the company. Secondly, social media stories become viral easily and
the readers without thinking believe in those. Thirdly, fake news is more accepted in modern
days, as readers find it more interesting and entertaining (Amber and Thompson).

2INTRODUCTION TO GOVERNMENT
Fake news impact the democracy in a huge way. It can affect the democracy by
changing people’s opinions and views. Mostly, fake political news appears during the time of
election. It is to change the people’s decision to vote a political leader. Fake news affects the
system as people’s decision might change and they may end up voting the wrong person. It is
to be kept in mind that a wrong decision can change a person’s life or even the whole
country’s future in a huge way (Rubin, Chen and Conroy). Therefore, it is high time for the
readers to start thinking before believing or taking actions.

3INTRODUCTION TO GOVERNMENT
References
Day, Amber, and Ethan Thompson. "Live from New York, it's the fake news! Saturday Night
Live and the (non) politics of parody." Popular Communication 10.1-2 (2012): 170-182.
Hunt, Elle. "What is fake news? How to spot it and what you can do to stop it." The
Guardian 18 (2016).
Rubin, Victoria L., Yimin Chen, and Niall J. Conroy. "Deception detection for news: three
types of fakes." Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology 52.1
(2015): 1-4.
Snopes.com. "Needle In Pepsi." Snopes.Com, 2017,
https://www.snopes.com/horrors/food/syringe.asp.
Youtube.com. "How To Spot Fake News - Factcheck.Org." Youtube, 2017,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkwWcHekMdo.