Fake News research

According to McBeth, and Randy (2011), we should avoid labeling fake news as a term that has a straightforward meaning because ‘news' means verifiable information that is presented for the interest of the public. Therefore, any information that does not meet these standards should be referred as ‘fake news'. ‘Fake news' therefore is an oxymoron that lends itself to damaging the credibility of information be it real news As stated fake news is the cause of disinformation which means deliberate attempts to manipulate society by delivering dishonest information to them. ‘Fake news’ leads to misinformation which refers to misleading information created without the intent of malice. According to Marchi, (2012), misinformation and disinformation are problems that affect the society, but disinformation is more dangerous because it is a well-organized, resourced and technology reinforced work.

There are a number of impacts that ‘fake news' has on journalism. One of them is that the industry faces a risk of being drowned out by the discordance. Journalists also face the risk of manipulation by people in politics who attempt to mislead and corrupt them in spreading ‘fake news', and who do not care about the ethics of public relations. Another risk that journalists face is becoming the target of liars and hoaxers who intimidate and discredit their journalism. A journalist needs to realize that ‘fake news' has been there for as long as the real and true news has been, and distinguishing them is very important. There are a number of social platforms that every person with a smartphone or a computer can access.

They include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat among many others (Pennycook, Gordon, and David, 2018). These are the platforms used by the perpetrators of ‘fake news’ because they know that they already have a medium and a way of transmitting the ‘fake news'. This has had a lot of impacts because sometimes it is not easy to differentiate fake news from real news. Our society needs to acquire ways on how to differentiate fake news from real news by verifying and ensuring that they get news from credible media sources. Before reading and sharing the news, they need to be more skeptical and be better equipped to be able to rate the quality and the credibility of the information they encounter (Newman et al, 2018).

There is a need for a crucial strategy in handling this issue which involves media literacy to the consumers, training and proving news consumers with tools that help them in gauging the legitimacy and the credibility of a news source, and helping them in becoming aware of their cognitive biases. It is clear that fake news spreads very fast and it is something that looks and feels real, which usually gives it more of a feeling of legitimacy than actual news. It is very saddening that society is also responsible for spreading this news through the social platforms. It is, therefore, necessary that people learn how to differentiate fake from real news by ensuring that they share information from credible news sources.