These URLs mean that the link is from an educational and government source. They are trusted because they are from professional sources who have done their research.
With the growing technology of the 21st century, it's getting harder to recognize fake news. Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have been riddled with fake or exaggerated news. The recent election has brought about a lot of fake news regarding each of the candidates.
Ariel Edwards-Levy, staff reporter and polling director at The Huffington Post, writes an article about fake news relating to the recent political race. Levy took a poll of voters who were said to have described something as fake news and who they voted for. According to her poll, the people who voted for Donald Trump had the highest value for saying something, related to the election, was fake news. Levy writes that people could say these sources are fake news because of their personal beliefs. It's also said that people who disagree with others beliefs will be more susceptible to fake news to what they don't believe.
The LA Daily News Editorial board writes an article about how people are easily fooled. Being able to tell the difference between what's true and what's not means the ability to be able to interpret what sources are credible. Most people when they read are reading for what's written and not who has written it. The writer of an article could have forms of bias to them which needs to be taken into consideration. The editorial board writes that kids today might not be so in touch with their political side than those older that them. Those who have a political opinion often bring it into what they write rather than writing for the truth.
In order to stop the spread of fake news and to tell its credibility we need to pay attention to who is writing the article and research more on its topic. If a headline seems fishy, it probably will be, but to be sure keep looking into it. An important way to battle fictional writing is to stay aware of it.
Hey Megan,
ReplyDeleteI actually read the exact same article on LA Daily and was really surprised by what was said in the article. I found it very alarming that one of the polls you talked about said that most people who voted for Trump wrote something related to fake news. I completely agree with you that in todays world, social media makes it so much harder to depict fake from real news. Overall, I thought you wrote a very goo blog. good job :)
I mentioned this to one of your colleagues that, nowadays, the URL is not always the deciding factor in what can be trusted. Did you know, for example, that Stormfront, a neo-Nazi organization, has a .org? To get a .org, you just have to register with a domain hosting website. Even GoDaddy, one of those companies, says, ".ORG conveys credibility. It's the domain people most commonly associate with charities and other non-profit institutions. Provide valuable, well-intended information. .ORG websites are known for containing valuable, unbiased information." (see https://www.godaddy.com/tlds/org-domain) But the issue is that they don't show how they determine who gets the .org!
ReplyDeleteI wonder, can you go into a specific example after you refer to the LA Daily News article? What if readers don't take the link? In your last paragraph, when you say the editorial board, do you mean of the LA Daily News?
wow, the introduction was so relatable. I made me think of when I first started doing research papers and that is exactly what my teacher said to look for. Sites that have edu, org , gov embedded in the URL. Yes, it is true that recognizing fake new in the 21st century has become increasingly hard.
ReplyDeleteI think the only thing I'd like to see in this blog is an example of an site that has edu, org , or .gov in the URL that isn't actually a credible source. Overall, I think this was a great blog. Keep up the good work and great introductions!
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ReplyDeleteI agree with your first paragraph, in middle school my teachers would say to always look for url's ending in .org, .gov, and .edu. Those sources are not credible anymore now that we look more into it. People are always feeding in to what is on Facebook and twitter also, sometimes I even believe some of that stuff is true.
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