Fake News Essay: Social Media's Impact on News and Perception

This essay delves into the multifaceted impacts of fake news and the evolving dynamics of news consumption in the digital age, with a specific focus on the influence of social media platforms like Facebook. The essay explores the definition and classifications of fake news, differentiating between intentional misinformation and unintentional inaccuracies. It examines the reasons behind the prevalence of fake news, including its role in events like the US election, and analyzes how social media has revolutionized the way people access and perceive news. The essay discusses the shift from traditional media to online platforms, highlighting the dominance of Facebook as a news source and its impact on the spread of information, including both factual news and misleading content. It also considers the role of social media algorithms in shaping the news experience, the challenges of identifying and combating fake news, and the implications for news organizations and consumers. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of critical thinking and verification in the digital era.

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Fake News Essay
Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
News:..........................................................................................................................................2
Fake news...................................................................................................................................2
When is fake news not fake news...........................................................................................2
Why are we talking about it....................................................................................................3
Social Media impact...............................................................................................................3
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................13
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Fake News Essay
Discuss how social media (Facebook) has changed the way people get news and perceive
what news is.
Introduction
In this topic we will be discussing the impacts of fake news and the pros and cons of fake
news on society. The way in which we can eliminate or minimise fake news, that is widely
spread through the social media platform specifically Facebook. The distribution of news
channels which has changed due to social media is also discussed in the theory briefly.
News: They explain why a story interests its audience and how editors and other journalists
decide that the information provided is news or not. Information is derived from various
sources such as newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and the Internet (Collins
Dictionary, N.d.).
Fake news is the information provided on the internet which is not true. Fake news can be
further classified into two kinds that are given in the text below (BBC, 2019).
1. Fake information which is published or sent with an intention to transfer wrong
information to people and is presented in such a way that people believe fake news is
real. The person creating it knows that they are made up and deliberately puts them
online.
2. People something while creating or providing information does not check background
of news for accurate information and unwillingly provide partial correct and partial
false information.
When is fake news not fake news
It is observed from the research that there are times when real news is categorised as fake
news by certain people and groups who are not satisfied with the news. These people and
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Fake News Essay
group spread information related to news that this is not real news, the motive behind doing
so is that they do not want to accept that information. News is also categorised as fake news
by certain people and group when they have a different opinion on the topic which is in news
as they do not want to accept the facts. The major reason behind this situation is that people
are not aware about what to believe or not (Hutchinson, 2018).
Why are we talking about it
During the US election I big issue was created because of Fake news, plenty of fake news
was shared about the candidate’s one Fake News regarding the current president of US
Donald Trump become the most shared news on social media. The Fake news wa having the
comment of Donald trump stating that the republican voters are the dumbest voters of the
country, which was never said by Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton also faced a similar
situation as lots of fake news was spread. This situation created a panic among the voters as
voters were manipulated with the fake news, as the consequences an investigation was
launched by the parliament due to rise in fake news (Social mediahq, 2018).
Social Media impact
The way we used to receive news is changing rapidly due to social media, ealier people has to
wait for their newspaper for breaking news and have to buy magazines to get aware about the
celebrity & gossips. This can be done easily now a day with a single touch of the social
media app people can read news or can get updated with the breaking news, without any time
boundation (Social mediahq, 2018).
The Social media platforms are one of the major sources from which online news can be
assessed, it is estimated that it has more than 2.4 billion cusomters, and about 64.5 percent get
their news from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram as an alternative of
outdated mass media (Social mediahq, 2018).
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Fake News Essay
Recently a survey was conducted among internet users, 50 percent of people surveyed stated
that they get latest news from social media before getting it from any news channel or station.
Multiple internet user get breaking news on their news feed in social media from where they
go to different sits to read the news. It has been analysed from the survey conducted that there
is 57 percent hike in the circulation to news sites mentioned from social media (Social
mediahq, 2018).
Media houses are stimulating for the modifications that are coming to Facebook’s Newscast
column that the app or site is having when it is accessed. Facebook favours the posts that are
shared by the networks of family and friends, over the information from news organizations
and other businesses (Maheshwari, & Ember, 2018).
Even though Facebook handler’s desired discussion and reporters provided them stuffs to
chat about, the coordination among the various broadcasting platforms was defective from
the initial stage (Maheshwari, & Ember, 2018).
Facebook has stated that its changes are meant to improve well-being of its customers. The
motive of Facebook is to bring online pleasantness. The recent sift in the strategy has
occurred due to the government scrutiny. According to the recent survey conducted by
approximately the Pew Research Centre on American people stated that nearly half of the
people as getting their daily news from Facebook. Facebook is implementing various changes
which one get into action will enable people to see post and articles which are shared by their
friends and family and the post shared by other publications will be less visible (Anderson, &
Caumont, 2014).
Facebook monitors the habit’s and patterns of consumer web browsing history and then
provides the user with similar posts and ads. Even though Facebook highlights certain posts
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Fake News Essay
like birth publications that rapidly gains Likes and comments as there is no specific rule
related to pop ups (Anderson, & Caumont, 2014).
On the other hand, social platforms are controlling what its users will see or what they won’t
see. Friends on social media are becoming the “managing editors” by determining the post
and news which we will get. On Facebook News and articles are shared and liked by multiple
people before we receive it in our news feed. This indicates and creates a limitation on the
post and information which we receive is controlled by friends and family on social media. In
social media platforms multiple website are available that competes in "fake news" which
creates sensational headlines which often get more shared as readers lack facts of news
(Anderson, & Caumont, 2014).
Misrepresentation spread considerably beyond, sooner, profounder than any other kind of
information available on internet and controlling the spread of fake information is not easy.
Brands often use social media in order to reach to various markets and customers to give
them information to people the potential customer attention. However it is notice that
syndication is spread throughout the social media.
Fake News, News and information conveying process takes place rapidly nowadays. The
breaking news today will not be remembered by tomorrow. Missing things are easier as they
are quickly shared and turned around. Even though developing huge statistics by our side is
magnificent, it is substance continuously inspection bases and not captivating headings by
means of fact (Maheshwari, & Ember, 2018).
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Fake News Essay
((Forbes, 2018).)
How social media sites stack up on news: Taking consideration of the various sites and
proportion. Facebook is one of the major sites among various social media sites. Facebook is
accessed by approximately two-thirds (64%) of the population of America and nearly 30% of
the population are receiving their daily news (Guess, Nagler, & Tucker, 2019).
Social media participation in news: Among the people using Facebook around half of the
population of the users share videos, news and post which they like. Apart from this nearly
fourth six percent of social media users have debated over some topic and issue. When
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Fake News Essay
accumulating in order to distributing newscast on platforms such as Facebook, the minor
amount is similarly concealing newsflash by their own, through post, photographs and
videotapes of newscast happenings (Cosmosmagazine, 2019).
((Forbes, 2018).)
How do social media users discover news: Facebook is a significant foundation for web
page recommendations aimed at numerous newsflash bulletin channels, on the other hand the
customers gaining access through Facebook devote a reduced amount of stretch as well as put
away smaller number pages than the individuals who reach straight (Fowler, 2018). The
research conducted shows that people who read news directly from the website spend three
times more time as compared to the people who visit news websites from Facebook, and the
pages visited by the Facebook user is five times more than the direct users. People visiting
websites shows higher level of engagement while reading news which has big implications
for the news channels and organisations that are willing to launch digital subscription
however make every effort in building a loyal audience (Meyer, 2018).
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Fake News Essay
((Forbes, 2018).)
What’s the news experience like on Facebook: Facebook customers receive multiple
varieties of news stories an estimation is that Facebook user gets six different topics areas of
news. Commonly received news by most of the people using Facebook is entertainment,
nearly 73% user receive news related to entertainment daily (BBC, 2019). Dissimilar to
Twitter, where the main function is to provide news breaks related information. Facebook is
still at early phase when information related to breaking news is compared. It is notice that
nearly 28% of Facebook user ever application or website for such purpose, only half of the
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Fake News Essay
population among them follows Facebook in terms of breaking news. ((Forbes)
How does a social media impact the discussion of news events?
The examination conducted indicates that Facebook does not facilitate important issues of the
day. We have noticed that on social media people are less willing to discuss topics than in
person, when the social audience is disagreed with them (Kastrenakes, 2019).
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Fake News Essay
((Forbes)
Facebook in order to check facts has hired third party venders and implemented his in various
new markets. It monitors any issue which has arisen related to ads, political contenders,
consumer evaluations in the direction of improved category incorrect news reports. This
provides helpful information to the user such as page info, advertisement information, it also
gives the information about pages managers where they are located and any other similar
page they might have (Funke, 2019).
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Fake News Essay
On the other hand stand individuals struggles at work – It is hard to understand that whether
social media platforms are willingly spreading fake news, and by implementing various
changes the spread of fake news is reduced (Forbes, 2018).
Conclusion
The concept of Fake news is spread widely which cannot be ignored. It encompasses from
different type of expressions as there is little coherence the reason behind this situation is the
term and scope are unclear. Fake news has provided various situations where it lead to chaos
among people and the country, which is not good. Various regulations a have been
implemented by government as well as from social media service providers in order to
restrict the spread of fake news. The concept of Fake news has evolved during the time and
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Fake News Essay
now we have plenty of websites which are dedicated to spread fake news with an motive
behind of getting attention from people and sending user to a different potential website in
order to get like and comment. The conclusion from the search conducted above suggest that
people should use their own sense and institution while reading any news and before
spreading it by sharing or commenting should check it with the original source or with any
other available source.
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Fake News Essay
References
Anderson, M. & Caumont, A. (2014). How social media is reshaping news, Accessed 17
April 2019, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/24/how-social-media-is-
reshaping-news/
BBC (2019). Matter of fact-checkers: Is Facebook winning the fake news war. Accessed 02
May, 2019. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47779782
BBC (2019). Fake news: What is it? And how to spot it. Accessed 17 April 2019.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/38906931
Cosmosmagazine. (2019). Fake news journal paper revealed as fake news. Accessed 01 May,
2019. https://cosmosmagazine.com/society/fake-news-journal-paper-revealed-as-
fake-news
Collins Dictionary (N.d.). Definition of 'news. Accessed 17 April 2019.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/news
Forbes (2018). How Social Media Has Changed How We Consume News. Accessed 17 April
2019, https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicolemartin1/2018/11/30/how-social-media-has-
changed-how-we-consume-news/#7921c6223c3c
Fowler, G.A. (2018). I fell for Facebook fake news. Here’s why millions of you did, too.
Accessed 02 May, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/10/18/i-
fell-facebook-fake-news-heres-why-millions-you-did-too/?
noredirect=on&utm_term=.addc8f2cc830
Funke, D. (2019). Forget fake news stories. False text posts are getting massive engagement
on Facebook. Accessed 02 May, 2019.
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Fake News Essay
https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2019/forget-fake-news-stories-false-text-
posts-are-getting-massive-engagement-on-facebook/
Guess, A., Nagler, J. & Tucker, J. (2019). Less than you think: Prevalence and predictors of
fake news dissemination on Facebook. Accessed 01 May, 2019. DOI:
10.1126/sciadv.aau4586
Hutchinson, A. (2018). Problem - and Digital Literacy is Largely to Blame. Accessed 17
April 2019. https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/social-media-still-has-a-fake-
news-problem-and-digital-literacy-is-largel/538930/
Maheshwari, S. & Ember, S. (2018). The End of the Social News Era? Journalists Brace for
Facebook’s Big Change. Accessed 01 May, 2019.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/business/media/facebook-news-feed-
media.html
Meyer, R. (2018). The Grim Conclusions of the Largest-Ever Study of Fake News. Accessed
01 May, 2019. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/03/largest-
study-ever-fake-news-mit-twitter/555104/
Kastrenakes, J. (2019). Facebook will punish groups for repeatedly spreading fake news.
Accessed 02 May, 2019.https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/10/18304739/facebook-
groups-reduce-misinformation-harmful-content-changes-messenger
Social mediahq (2018). Social Media Has Forever Changed the Way We Consume News.
Accessed 17 April 2019. https://socialmediahq.com/social-media-forever-changed-
way-consume-news/
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