POLI-330N Week 2 Discussion: Connection Between Our Culture and the News Media
(Option 2)
Option 2:
“Fake news”. We have heard that term a lot in the past few years. Former President Donald Trump held
on to the term "fake news" as a way of belittling any story or outlet critical of him, even appearing to
claim to have invented the term and handing out so-called "Fake News Awards" in 2017 (Wendling,
2018). Trump and his fellow supporters used the term "fake news" to describe any media coverage that
casts him in a negative light. Conservative outlets like The Weekly Standard and Big Government have
criticized fact checking of conservative content as a perceived liberal attempt to control discourse (The
Washington Post, 2019). A 2019 study found that fake news sharing was less common than perceived,
and that actual consumption of fake news was limited (Egelhofer & Lecheler, 2019). Another 2019 study
found that older, more conservative people were more likely to have shared fake news during the 2016
election season than moderates, younger adults, or "super liberals" (Tucker, Nagler, & Guess, 2019). This
issue of people utilizing social media as a way of passing along misinformation is disturbing. Facebook is
using a feature called “fact checking”. They are checking posts of information being shared and if
anything in the post is “false” or misleading”, then the post is marked as such. The post will go on to say
“This post has been checked by a group of independent fact checkers and this post has been marked
false or misleading” and then go on to say why or what in the article or shared post was wrong and link
you to the right information. Of course, people get angry and blame “government conspiracies”, etc.
According to Facebook, they are not using Bots to verify your posts and no, you cannot block these fact
checkers. The fact-checkers review Facebook and Instagram posts, videos, images and links in an effort
“to address viral misinformation – provably false claims, particularly those that have the potential to
mislead or harm” (David Tregde, 2020).
News stations, newspapers, political magazines should be unbiased. This should be information to the
people for them to make better decisions regarding our political situations. I, myself, have never cared
for or even delved into politics and completely avoid the subject when it is brought up. Since this last
presidential term and recent election and everything that has happened with COVID, I have found myself
learning more and more about politics. Why? My job and my military career have been deeply impacted
over the decisions that have been made and will be made. News media outlets need to be held more
accountable to report the facts and just the facts. Some of the most trusted news sources are CSPAN,
ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News. These four news outlets are straight down the middle and
maintain a minimal or balanced bias (Fox Valley Technical College, 2017).
References
David Tregde, J. P. (2020). WUSA9. Retrieved from https://www.wusa9.com:
https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/verify/verify-you-cannot-block-facebooks-third-party-fact-checks
This study source was downloaded by 100000829957125 from CourseHero.com on 02-14-2022 22:18:39 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/104235646/Poli330N-Week-2-Discussiondocx/
(Option 2)
Option 2:
“Fake news”. We have heard that term a lot in the past few years. Former President Donald Trump held
on to the term "fake news" as a way of belittling any story or outlet critical of him, even appearing to
claim to have invented the term and handing out so-called "Fake News Awards" in 2017 (Wendling,
2018). Trump and his fellow supporters used the term "fake news" to describe any media coverage that
casts him in a negative light. Conservative outlets like The Weekly Standard and Big Government have
criticized fact checking of conservative content as a perceived liberal attempt to control discourse (The
Washington Post, 2019). A 2019 study found that fake news sharing was less common than perceived,
and that actual consumption of fake news was limited (Egelhofer & Lecheler, 2019). Another 2019 study
found that older, more conservative people were more likely to have shared fake news during the 2016
election season than moderates, younger adults, or "super liberals" (Tucker, Nagler, & Guess, 2019). This
issue of people utilizing social media as a way of passing along misinformation is disturbing. Facebook is
using a feature called “fact checking”. They are checking posts of information being shared and if
anything in the post is “false” or misleading”, then the post is marked as such. The post will go on to say
“This post has been checked by a group of independent fact checkers and this post has been marked
false or misleading” and then go on to say why or what in the article or shared post was wrong and link
you to the right information. Of course, people get angry and blame “government conspiracies”, etc.
According to Facebook, they are not using Bots to verify your posts and no, you cannot block these fact
checkers. The fact-checkers review Facebook and Instagram posts, videos, images and links in an effort
“to address viral misinformation – provably false claims, particularly those that have the potential to
mislead or harm” (David Tregde, 2020).
News stations, newspapers, political magazines should be unbiased. This should be information to the
people for them to make better decisions regarding our political situations. I, myself, have never cared
for or even delved into politics and completely avoid the subject when it is brought up. Since this last
presidential term and recent election and everything that has happened with COVID, I have found myself
learning more and more about politics. Why? My job and my military career have been deeply impacted
over the decisions that have been made and will be made. News media outlets need to be held more
accountable to report the facts and just the facts. Some of the most trusted news sources are CSPAN,
ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News. These four news outlets are straight down the middle and
maintain a minimal or balanced bias (Fox Valley Technical College, 2017).
References
David Tregde, J. P. (2020). WUSA9. Retrieved from https://www.wusa9.com:
https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/verify/verify-you-cannot-block-facebooks-third-party-fact-checks
This study source was downloaded by 100000829957125 from CourseHero.com on 02-14-2022 22:18:39 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/104235646/Poli330N-Week-2-Discussiondocx/
