In the contemporary world, news has become easily accessible to anybody who may be looking for it by simply opening the right website page, tuning the right radio station or a television station; however, it is not always easy to know whether the information is true or false. The manipulation of this news has become so rampant such that in 2017, the “fake news” was named as the term that was frequently used (Rapp, & Salovich, 2018). Perhaps, this is the major reason as to why most of the professors are fond of giving students assignments on fake news so that the students may be in a position to give proper analysis concerning the information that they normally get from the reports, social media sites or from the news anchors. Researchers are not left out of this issue (Kogan, Moskowitz, & Niessner, 2017). In fact, some of the researchers give a negative opinion on the impact of fake news while others hold the contrary opinion.
Be they as they may, fake news is very hard to correct and even after it has been discredited, no one can deny the fact that its consequences can still be grave. Some researchers believe that the fundamental reason for the persistence of fake news is the extent to which individuals make premature conclusions based on the information at hand concerning the outcome of some event (Bakir, & McStay, 2018). They test this kind of hypothesis through an experimental paradigm, which they have adapted from a psychological literature concerning the constant influence. These researchers have found that first hand information is more influential than the late truth even if the truth is has a support from tangible evidence (Rapp, & Salovich, 2018). The researchers further point out that the result of a misinformation always pose great implications, especially when it comes to the most critical political outcomes or events.
Nevertheless, just like any other research topic, the contrary opinions are be expected, and “Fake News” is not an exception. Other researchers believe that believe that even with the breakout of fake news, its impact on people can only last only for some time, however, when the truth is uncovered, the reputation of the fake news fades away (Rapp, & Salovich, 2018). In addition, these researchers mention that the influence of fake news on people’s beliefs and attitudes is deep, but once it is discredited with a convincing fact, it becomes useless.
As much as these researchers may antagonize over who is right on this issue, it is important to point out that even a nonprofessional can attest the fact that fake news hardly fade out of people’s minds and it has great and lasting impact on people’s minds and attitudes. Even the social media platforms like Facebook, instagram, tweeter and the rest are not capable of putting fake news to an end (Jang, & Kim, 2018). Nowadays, every individual is free to publish any news content, be it true or false and the content can affect the whole world. Regrettably, these misinformation do gain an overwhelming attraction over the internet, especially over the social media platforms. Individuals get tricked, but they normally assume that that they get is the right information and start circulating the message to the entire world without thinking about it in a critical manner (Kogan, S., Moskowitz, & Niessner, 2017). Even though this kind of misinformation gradually fades, it ought to be pointed out that they disappear after causing a great damage.
Despite the fact that the rise of misinformation in the contemporary world society is irrefutable, its effects are just another story. Many people were arguing that the victory of Donald Trump was dependent on fake news (Rapp, & Salovich, 2018). Certainly, there was clear evidence that indeed, fake news and stories got an overwhelming attraction on the social media platforms. These fake stories even outperformed the authentic news, however, critics may hold that this fake news and stories did not reach a larger section of the American population and up to this moment, the influence of these fake news have not yet been proven.
As pointed out earlier in this essay, any individual who has the capability the access the internet can possibly publish any information that he/she feels pleased with without considering whether that kind of information is true of false (Jang, & Kim, 2018). Not so long ago, the constant spread of misinformation has been dubbed as “fake news” The point here is the fact that this is considerably the avalanche of sham information, which corrupt people’s minds and attitudes. Maybe, this is the fundamental reason why so many websites including bots have decided to publish contents, which are click-worthy. This is because they know who their audience are and they know very well that their audience do not take their time to think much in this era where the internet is overloaded with all kinds of information (Rapp, & Salovich, 2018).
Fake news is not a good idea, in fact it is bad to a society at large, however, it may be good to some people because they can use it as their means of achieving some goal. In a nutshell, fake news is effective when it comes to the issue of conflict of interest. For example, one can possibly use propaganda in politics to achieve his interest (Bakir, & McStay, 2018). The actual impact of the constantly growing conflict of interest in fake news has been the awareness that individuals may not be in a position to detach genuine news from fake ones.
With today’s online platforms, news are always posted with regard to what people may like to hear or see (Jang, & Kim, 2018). Even though they post news based on preferences and likes, it ought to be noted that this can possibly limit the diversity of sources of news and can as well alter the perception of the people on what may be considered as true or false in the online environment. More to the point, fake news has a great impact in the organizations’ workplaces (Peters et al. 2018). Here, they can best be referred to as rumors and can make life in the organization extremely difficult. This is why great concern needs to be placed on this issue.
In the contemporary word society, the reputation that an individual may gain is simply an extension of the real life of an organization. Apart from the researchers, it is important to point out that many other people in the community see these kind of news as dependable, trustworthy and more knowledgeably with regard to their cases (Mihailidis, & Viotty, 2017). As organizations enter the online environment, they are followed by their reputations and they have to use all means possible to ensure that they match the real world. As an individual decides to share some kind of information over social media platforms such as tweeter or Facebook, the followers of such an individual expect the information to be factual and can hardly buy another contrary idea under normal conditions (Peters et al. 2018). However, it should be noted that as followers gradually detect that the information was a lie, and then they lose trust on such an individual.
Some social media platforms like Facebook are starting to apply a caution label to posts and articles that suffer from credibility. Despite this move by these websites, one resolution that this paper hold onto is that every individual must make sure that any information that he/she may be sharing must be true. Otherwise, the impact of fake news is deadly and it remains to be a bad thing (Bakir, & McStay, 2018).