Fake News vs. Real News
In the age of Social Media the possibly of getting Fake News becomes more and more a real possibility. The ease of opening up your Facebook, or Twitter people see what they believe to be true, without checking to see if it was from a verified news source.
As a digital media has taken over how we get our news there is more and more chance of spreading Fake News. The average person who thinks because it looks like a news story, thinks that it must be true. They do not check for sources and quotes within the story.
The way we get our news has changed over the years, the first American Newspaper was printed in 1690. The first ever news was broadcast in 1940 by Lowell Thomas. The internet began o January 1, 1983, but it was into 1990 when Tim Berners-Lee invented the world Wide Web that we soon turn to the internet for our news. Hence, the invention of the Smart Phones, and news at our fingertips with the introduction of the I Phone on June 29, 2007.
So with the invasion of the Smartphone to society the cellphone became the new norm. Everywhere we go, everything we do, we had information in our hands 24/7. An article from The Boston Globe, shows how fans use their cellphones at a concert.
Since Smartphones everybody is able to create their own news story, without fact checking, verifying sources. People are using their cameras, and doing videos to report news live from the scene. Unfortunately, just putting the news out there without some sort of verification, people tend to think that the news they see is real, simply because it was filmed by an untrained news source.
What does a journalist do? They report the Who, What, When, Where, Why & How? A journalist reports the facts, after much verification, however sometimes in a rush to be first with the news they are not as through as they should be.
With the invention of all of the different apps, websites, blogs the news became a question. What is the definition of Fake news? Fake news is a neologism often used to refer to fabricated news. This type of news, found in traditional news, social media or fake news websites, has no basis in fact, but is presented as be factually accurate. (Wikipedia)
Now the next question is what is Real news? Is material reported in a periodical or on a news cast listened to the news on the radiob: matter that is newsworthy The layoffs were big news in this part of the state. 3: newscast We saw it on the evening news. From, “news” (Merriam — Webster Dictionary Online.
When you check The Real Donald Trump Twitter account the number of times that you see the word FAKE NEWS, is large.
In the midst of all of the Fake News, that is going around people are wondering what to believe and what is real. Here is one of the reasons why our news sources are in question:
What a great example from the Mary Tyler Moore show, about what news is. Why are we trying to make News into something that it is not. News is Truth, based on facts, verification, quoting sources. I think somewhere along the way that news got lost in all the social media, even in broadcast news. What we see today is more entertaining rather than cold hard facts. I often wonder what Walter Cronkite would say about all of this fake news vs. real news. People do not want to hear the real truth today. They do not want to hear about whistleblowers, like All The Presidents Men, and Broadcast News. The public in now in the quest for what they want to believe to be true over what is actually the facts. Real News, is fact based, Fake News is for entertainment. Newspapers, Broadcast News, Social Media the news just keeps growing by leaps and bounds, but somewhere the public needs to be educated on Real vs. Fake.