How Fake News Changes Political And Social Life?

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How “Fake News” Changes Political and Social Life
I. Introduction
Alternatively known as hoax news, fake news refers to propaganda or false information published under the guise of being authentic. Fake news is nothing new; it has been in existence as long as humans in the form of innuendos, rumors, and gossip. In recent years, fake news has grown increasingly prevalent due to the presence of social media platforms as well as the emergence of publishing companies such as Empire News and National Report that deliberately deceive their readers by publishing fake news. To further delve into this issue, this paper evaluates relevant literature regarding fake news, its impact on political and social life, and measures being taken in response.
II. Discussion
The purpose behind fake news is deceiving readers by publishing stories that sound genuine enough for them to seem authentic. Fake news is nothing new; in 1801, Thomas Jefferson asserted that “there will always be abundance in newspapers as for what is not true” (A8). In contemporary society, fake news is associated with publishers such as Empire News and National Report, who are determined to flood the internet with fake news. This has caused some analysts to come out openly and state that fake news poses a huge threat to U.S interests, both abroad and at home. In this respect, Omilan states that the extensive broadcasting of fake news has an impact on the political discourse and is gradually eroding the public’s confidence in media outlets (A8).
What makes stories such as the ones published by Empire News and their ilk is the way they title and frame their stories, making them seem credible to the uninformed reader. In most instances, this belief is easily translated into income for publishers of fake news. In this sense, they have adopted a simple and effective business model. They employ various unscrupulous freelance writers to handle the process of writing fake news that is enraging, weird, or surprising enough to appear on the trending page. Added to this, they run display ads against the traffic and happily generate revenue (Dewey, 3).
Even though the prevalence of fake news has often gone unnoticed or in some cases ignored, some stories have had real impacts on the United States. For instance, Russell Frank cites a few examples of headlines of fake stories, one of which is: “Israel to Dismantle Settlements, Recognizes Palestinian State.” Although this headlines seem believable to some uninformed readers because it was published on a website that looks like a legitimate news organization websites, follows conventional journalistic style, and contains information that is believable, the story is fake (Frank 316).
Likewise, the National Reporter is notorious for fake news, and one of the headlines in one of their posts is: “Sarah Palin Calls for Invasion of Czech Republic.” At face value, these headlines may look humorous to some discerning readers. However, they can easily cause unanticipated and disastrous outcomes. For instance, in Washington, DC, fake news had circulated about the operation of a pedophile sex ring behind a pizza restaurant. This ...