Recognizing Fake News

By Emma Vincent

For decades, the public has relied on newspaper articles, magazines, and more recently the Internet to gather and obtain information about everyday news. While world-wide information sharing is valuable to individuals who want to stay informed, the importance of finding, sharing, or implementing trustworthy news reports often goes by the wayside. However, the concept of fake news is not a new, modern idea.

For those who are unfamiliar with the term fake news, The New York Times defines it as “fictitious articles deliberately fabricated to deceive readers, generally with the goal of profiting through clickbait.”

From this definition arises another question: what exactly is clickbait?

According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, clickbait refers to “something, such as a headline, designed to make readers want to click on a hyperlink especially when the link leads to content of dubious value or interest."

The article written by Terrence McCoy, titled “For the ‘New Yellow Journalists,’ Opportunity Comes in Clicks and Bucks,” highlights a troubling idea that has been put into play on a large scale. Using the power of instant sharing through social media, these new writers create and share false information at a frighteningly quick speed.

The writers mentioned in McCoy’s article have created a job that relies on pandering to their niche audience by publishing vague and often false information to satisfy their readers’ interests. This style of writing, referred to as yellow journalism, is another concept that has been around for ages.

Defined by the Collins English Dictionary, yellow journalism “exploits, distorts or exaggerates the news to create sensations and attract readers.”

Writers Goldman and Wade mentioned above use this method to write a constant stream of content for their website, which hosts a frightening amount of Internet traffic. These two, and others like them, publish this content for one purpose. Making money.

But why does their audience believe what they are publishing when most of their articles do not contain relevant or valid information? One Huffington Post article beautifully illustrates this point.

In this article, the idea that people maintain a self-image as well as a belief system that is fueled by personal morals and values is important to understand. When ideas that do not align with one’s beliefs, habits, and attitudes intrude into a personal space, anxiety and mistrust follow. The fancy phrase for this occurrence is labeled "cognitive dissonance" by the field of psychology.

As an outsider with this information, it is easy to analyze the information that McCoy’s article provides. Web readers believe the content created by yellow journalists because it was tailor-made to fit into their worldview. These writers wake up every morning, research what hot topics are trending, and rework the information to fit into their readers’ language and belief system.

It is unlikely that this method would fail its users. By relying on the anxiety of the uneducated and struggling masses, the perfect niche has been established. By appealing to their readers, men like Goldman and Wade will easily continue to manipulate their audience and spread fake news.