Throughout the years, social media has been growing rapidly and it will continue to grow at a higher pace. In the coming years, social media will not compare to how it is currently. It will be set as the communication medium for most people to connect with others no matter where they are in the world. Apart from having these platforms becoming a place where one can document their life, it has become a place where individuals receive their news information unlike before. Before social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, individuals received their news from the radio, television and the newspaper. Despite that, the growth of technology made it possible to receive information on their handheld devices no matter where they are. Although this may seem like a positive thing, there are some dangers that arise from this information age. One of the dangers I will be discussing in this paper is the spread of misinformation within the “fake news”.
Eye-catching headlines and exaggerated images are two features fake news appeals to a wide range of audiences and to increase readership. The strategy of “click bait” is used to attract the audience to click on a link to a particular page. With the number of clicks, the author of the page is receiving a profit. The higher the number of visitors the better profit the author is receiving. Fake news is a type of propaganda that often hides under appearances of legitimate news organizations making it difficult for the reader to distinguish between what is real and what is make-believe. A great deal of manipulated stories has been published making it challenging to eliminate them all off of the internet. Considering fake news is not going anywhere anytime soon, being able to distinguish what is real and what is fake on one's own becomes very crucial. The reader needs to be able to analyze and categorize the information before them and be able to figure out which information is not reliable and what needs to be discarded because the information is false.
The purpose of this essay is to go in depth to state the kind of fake news the audiences are exposed to. The paper will further discuss the misinformation relating to democracy, for there has been skepticism that democracy is in crisis due to the increase of information manipulated news. I will be using examples from the recent 2016 presidential election between president Trump and Clinton where it has been argued that Donald trump won the election for his excessive use of misleading and fabricated news. Furthermore, I will relate the concept of totalitarianism by the famous philosopher Hannah Arendt to the modern day events occurring in democracy, using her popular book titled The Origins of Totalitarianism.
Intent:
The reasoning is a guide that answers the questions regarding human behaviors, as well as justifies human actions. These ideas were derived from David Hume and Immanuel Kant. Knowing the exact intent or reasoning for these articles and stories that surface the web is difficult. The majority of which do not have the intentions to cause harm or a chaos but rather they are purely for entertainment. Some are an operation to make a profit, knowing that with a number of clicks a story has, the higher rate of profit the author receives. The source of the fake news willingly intends to deceive the audience in any way possible to ensure they are getting as many people clicking on the page. Finally, another reasoning that an operation might spread the fake news is to achieve a political goal. Much of which was seen during the campaign between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
The Onion is a news satire organization that has an intent to provide misinformation as an act of humor and laughter. Their intent is not to deceive the reader into thinking their stories are real in any way possible. Nonetheless, not all companies offering fake news or satire have the same intention but rather others are malicious and they deceive. For example, a recent fake article regarding a pizzeria has gone too far to a point it put people's lives in danger and jeopardy, which turned to be a moral problem. The story involved the Comet Ping Pong Pizza in Washington DC being a “nest of Child-trafficking”. The fabricated story got picked up extremely fast due to social media, people were sharing the story and talking about it. With the story’s, popularity people were deceived to think it was a real story. The fictitious story stated that the owner of the pizzeria was holding young girls hostage in the restaurant's back room, where then these girls were molested and then sold. The source of the story also alleged that the restaurant was the home base of a child abuse ring led by Hillary Clinton and her campaign chief, John D. Podesta. A story that was just intended for humor, turned to be very violent. The owner of the restaurant and his co-workers were receiving numerous hate and death threats. It got extremely serious to a point a man from North Carolina brought in a rifle and shot fire in the restaurant to free the children who were allegedly held, hostage. That just shows how these fabricated stories are getting out of hand, they can be too extreme that it could cost someone's life. That just explains that if a fake story causes harm to innocent people or its higher intention is for profit that kind of satire should be condemned.
Without having the correct critical thinking, anybody can be fooled by what is written on the internet. During a statement calling, President Trump himself quoted a statistic statement from an unreliable source regarding the Muslim ban. The source where president Trump received his information turned out to be categorized as a hate group. While the
“The CSP data has since been discredited but the impact the statement made cannot be erased from the large audience that it reached. “The fake news is itself fake,” said Ryan Daniels, professor at UH Maui College, “but when legitimate individuals who we look to for knowledge or information are quoting it, that gives legitimacy to the fake news so more and more people are going to believe it. Many significant figures including President Barack Obama have denounced fake news sources. At a news conference in Berlin on November 17, President Obama said “If we are not serious about facts and what’s true and what’s not, and particularly in an age of social media when so many people are getting their information in sound bites and off their phones, if we can’t discriminate between serious arguments and propaganda, then we have problems” (Akane Joseph).
That just shows that anybody can be affected by the fake media.
Totalitarianism:
“In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. … Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.” (Arendt)
The Origins of Totalitarianism, a book by Hannah Arendt, who was a Jewish American philosopher who focused on political theories. The book was broken down into three sections as she discussed totalitarianism, Anti Semitism, and Imperialism. Arendt argued the changes that occurred which lead to the growth of totalitarianism, as it gave the reader a little insight into what was occurring around her in her life. Arendt spoke about totalitarianism in the sense of the rise of nazism and the rise of Hitler and Stalin. Arendt does not believe dictatorship is necessarily for a government to become totalitarianism. She then goes forward to discuss and explain more into the government and how it is characterized by adopting new traditions and institutions that were there beforehand. Whereas the new traditions serve as a one particular of the totalitarian state. Arendt then goes on to argue that within a population that is low, totalitarianism is less likely to occur, for it needs high masses for it to grow and pick up.
“ In order to fight totalitarianism, one need understand only one thing: Totalitarianism is the most radical denial of freedom. Yet this denial of freedom is common to all tyrannies and is of no primary importance for understanding the peculiar nature of totalitarianism” ( Arendt 328).
The theory of totalitarianism is one being recognized in the modern day. It is being compared to the way our current president is running our country. Many sources have even stated there are many similarities between our democracy with the totalitarian government. Firstly, Hannah Arendt described the mass of people who were lined up to support the rise of dictators, the same is seen for Donald Trump’s followings and supporters, both online and in rallies. Moreover, to compare the period of totalitarianism to the period of democracy, another reason social media is ruining democracy is the way the information is presented online and given to the people. Donald Trump and Hitler are known for their fabricated stories that spread heat toward a specific race. While Hitler created the newspaper called The Volkischer Beobachter “facilitated the Nazis’ revolting propaganda and culture of genocidal hatred. It allowed Hitler and Goebbels the opportunity to publish countless fake news stories about adversarial countries, about Jews, and, indeed, the press.” (_) The same is seen done with Donald Trump, where he uses social media to spread ignorance and hate toward Muslims as well as people of different sexual orientation.
“Hitler set an early precedent for how to propagate fake news (or call real news “fake”) at the dawn of the information age. Kim Jong Il would control state media to his advantage much the same way. Saddam Hussein and his sons “owned” a dozen newspapers in Iraq, controlling virtually everything that was printed, and what was not. Vladimir Putin manipulates the press in Russia. (He also allegedly has journalists killed.)” (___). The way Donald trump is seen using fabricated news for his own benefits, is the fact that he uses unreliable sources which provide false statistics.
Critical Thinking:
With the amount of information being thrown at us daily, its difficult to keep up with everyone’s opinions and news. It is even more of a challenge developing a principle to be able to distinguish between what is real and what is considered fake news. Being able to separate the reliable information from the unreliable takes practice and takes critical thinking. Moreover, Seemingly professional news is provided online for the reading being able to use one's critical thinking is one of which ways one can separate what is needed. Seeing that much of the fake news goes viral because individuals are instantly sharing the information to their peers on their social media account, it is up to the reader to make sure the information they are receiving is completely accurate before accepting it and passing it down to other people. Making sure the information is not biased is another key element one should keep in mind while browsing the web.
A philosopher that uses the concept of critical thinking in his writing is, John Dewey. In his book How We Think, he argues that one should use their reflective though to eliminate judgment and skepticism. Dewey also argues that when one uses their reflective thought, it leads to active and careful consideration of belief that leads to knowledge. Dewey goes on to say that knowledge is enhanced when one surrounds themselves with their local community. People can come together and communicate with one another to develop a great working community where everyone can learn from each other. I believe that is an important point when discussing fake news, for we need to be able to help our our peers in distinguishing the unreliable news when they are not able to figure it out themselves.
Conclusion
Although social media platforms like Google and Facebook have sent out reports regarding the excessive exposure of fabricated news on their platforms. They are attempting to shut down as many fake news sources as possible. Nonetheless, there will always be fake news pretending to be professional journalism, because that is the living of some writers where they make a profit. Fake news will always stir up confusion, and will cause skepticism, but being able to use critical thinking, reflective thinking as well as judgement. One would be able to negative through the web confidently.