The Power Of Fake Media
This On The Media article stood out to me because there have been an abundant amount of fake articles that have diseased Facebook. Fake articles spread like wildfire, especially on Facebook. Since more than half of Americans get their news from Facebook, it's very easy to believe the article our friends share and also take part of spreading 'the news.' Reading and believing fake articles alter our opinions on certain subjects especially current hot topics such as the election.
An article I grabbed from On The Media website simply states; "In truth, a Trump presidency is – in part – a reflection of the status and evolution of the media and tech industries in 2016." This proves to be extremely true. I think both candidates, Clinton and Trump used the power of social media to their advantage by 'exposing' each other of their faults. There were countless fake stories about one another that were later debunked. As stretched as each candidates accusations were, their followers and mainstream media just believed what they wanted to believe. There can be horrifying outcomes of false stories if it were to strike the wrong person. The false story of Clinton's "pizzagate" caught attention of a man who went to do his own investigation and although no one was hurt, he opened fire inside the restaurant, scaring many. This terrifies me because anyone- especially on Facebook, can falsify a "news article" or conspiracy theory about a business or even a person and it can anger someone to participating in a deadly act.
It frustrates me that Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook does not take more responsibility of Facebook's publishing policies. He did admit that the company could take more part in what gets shared on the news feed. Maybe hire actual people to fact check shared articles. Even though to some, a fake news article can be very obvious. But there are more who are completely oblivious to fabrication and that is what scares me most.
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