So, What’s the issue?!
Like most people my source of information is the media. The media has become such a big component in our lives. The problem is that sometimes we take things that are completely false and spread them like they are true because we believe them. This is fake news and it is all around us.
The Deceiving Tale of Twitter’s Fake News
Fake news is something that is present in the media, but many people are unaware that this is an issue. This specific issue has become such a big problem because everyone has the ability to put anything out there– even when it could be false, inaccurate, or misleading. A lack of media literacy makes this an issue because people are quick to believe the specific things they have seen, heard, or read. People resonate with certain information that sits with them based on personal beliefs rather than the objective truth. This confirmation bias is why fake news is something that has become more polarized, popular, and powerful as time has passed. It is also not taken into consideration that people may spread fake news for their own personal agenda. This personal agenda can consist of different things like gaining attention, support, or creating their own narrative.
For me, my media literacy has been tested as of late while looking at sports news on Twitter. Many accounts on Twitter have become verified and have acted as official sports reports when they are really not that. The stories these accounts posted received a lot of coverage. No one questioned what was being said due to their Twitter blue check verification. On Twitter, people were quick to assume that a blue check verifies that account as a legit source. But many of these accounts were pretending to be sports news accounts.
I read some unprofessional quotes posted by these accounts, and they looked very similar to the real accounts. At first glance, it looked completely true and trustworthy, but when I did further investigations of the account, I saw that it was a prime example of fake news. My experience shows that many people can be tricked without checking where this information has come from.
It is important to factcheck.
Fake News: The Manti Te’o Story
In 2012, ESPN saw public outcry due to releasing a story regarding the Heisman trophy candidate, 5 star recruit, and ex Notre Dame Star linebacker Manti Te’o. In brief, Manti Te’o was a rising star from Hawaii where the media got a glimpse of him in highschool. The media lauded his story as a god-fearing, small-town kid from Hawaii. When Manti Te’o entered college, ESPN, FOX News, and other major news outlets got ahold of his story. They say it as a story that sat well with the average, rags-to-riches americans.
After deciding to continue his career at Notre Dame, he became caught up in a scandal. He thought his long-distance girlfriend had died. However it turned out that Manti Te’o had been ‘catfished’ by a man (who now identifies as a transgender woman).
ESPN and FOX News had originally captured this story as a sad tale where a young football player lost his girlfriend and another family member in the same week. Under false pretenses, professional sports commentators and critics ran with this story, hence affecting Manti Teo’s career forever. Many rumbling of his shortcomings as the 2012 Heisman trophy winner had much to do with this bad publicity which affected him in the long run. The 2022 Netflix documentary regarding this issue revealed that there were many mistakes and a general lack of investigative research used by many of the people who covered this story.
It is best to do your own research to make sure that the information learned is accurate because there is a lot of fake news out there. Be careful of what you believe and it is okay to assume that not everything out there is true.
