Fake News

Imagine you are taking a test in physics class. The boy next to you says that he didn’t study for the test and he would greatly appreciate you giving him the answers. You give him your scantron when your done taking the test and he takes a picture to copy. A week later the tests are graded and to your surprise both of you see a 0 on your paper. You go to the teacher together to question this and she tells you that due to exchanging answers you both failed. The boy next to you tells the teacher that you sole his paper and took a picture of it . The teacher believes him because he turned in his test first and she calls you out in front of the whole class as a cheater and a thief. This is who you have become.

This scenario demonstrates three things: lies in the media; false narratives; and ways we share information. The boy going behind your back to the teacher represents “journalists” taking a story and not telling the whole truth or sometimes straight up lying. The teacher represents the viewers and readers. When we hear or read a story that ́s disparaging against someone one or a group of people, we tend to share it more and because of that it spreads. The worst thing about this is we often don't check if the information is true or not. So the whole time it could be false but disinformation has already spread.

This issue occurs nationally and globally across all types of media which makes it dangerous. Disinformation is published on paper, online, on the radio, and television. Under Trump's administration disinformation reached its peak in the white house from issues on environmental concerns to immigration.

There have been different opinions on bias information such as “Media bias is ok-if it’s honest” however The problem with that is most people don’t check if the information they get is honest. Most people only care about who they get it from. Two different people could say the same thing however, the person delivering it could determine if people believe it let alone listen which creates problems like this: a recent study found that algorithms that detect hate speech are more likely to target African Americans than actual hate speech. This supports what i´m saying because most of the “hate speech” that is detected from African Americans is usually calling out racism and anti-black propaganda. When these things get flagged it basically teaches people to be more comfortable with hate speech; which has also increased under trump because he himself has participated in it, and it teaches people that speaking against it is wrong.

“When mass media displays such a clear bias, then the people who are on the losing end of that bias are not going to be happy.” - when the media promotes overly biased disinformation or false news the people on the “losing end” are being violated and their general welfare is in danger. The act of the media doing this in my opinion is unconstitutional. Its unconstitutional because the government is supposed to provide the health, peace, morality, and safety of its citizens. Being on the losing end of the media bias puts all of these things in jeopardy. The losing end of the media bias tends to be African americans and the poor as you just read.

One possible solution is gathering politically lay people and having them determine what news sites they deem as trustworthy or untrustworthy and most importantly biased or unbiased. This solution includes lay people because they are proven to be better at analyzing media a spotting disinformation and bias so basically they are neutral. After they determine what sites they trust those sites would be the ones promoted to people specifically on the internet through algorithms.

There are also certain websites that exist that will help you determine if your information is factual and much here are some

Bill Dodd a democratic lawmaker proposed a bill that would make digital literacy a requirement in schools to teach younger audiences how to spot false news and over biased new stories and sources.

you should care about this because solving this issue is a step forward in a safer and more tolerant america and world for that matter. with the rise of hate crimes who you don't know if you cold be next so you better make this issue your issue too.