How Fake News Spreads

by Heidi Cho

Abstract: The phenomena of fake news over Facebook shares takes advantage of psychology and audience pandering.

Audience: Readers, young adults, meta-media trenders

Background

In the information age, nowhere else does information get spread more quickly and efficiently than the internet. This level of high speed communication has made it possible for social movements to rally overnight; for news outlets to report on the go; and for voters to receive completely false information about the presidential election.

High speed communication was never so recognized as a double edged sword as it was considered in the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election. Facebook experienced whiplash for being the medium that generated the most shares for these fake news outlets.

Like a disease, fake news articles were shared over Facebook over and over, infecting voters with false thoughts and uninformed perspectives. The stories were outrageous, yet based on shares and garnered attention, the fake news beat the real legitimate sources.

One article claimed that North Korea was going to hold the next Olympics. The titles read like clickbait, and the content is off topic or copy-pasted segments from other articles to string together a biased story.

Many of the articles that gained traction were pro-Trump, and in studies done by Stanford and New York University, the ones that were pro-Trump were shared much more than the ones that were pro-Hillary.

No One Likes to be Wrong

People when faced with an opposing opinion will typically react in the defensive and respond with emotion rather than logic. It makes most people believe in their opinion even more intensely. Instead, people will respond positively to articles that feed their own opinions, like those who cherry pick the few google searches that justify a belief that most experts would say are false. Media that people like and tend to click on – in any feed, Facebook or otherwise – will propagate similar media in people’s recommended lists. When applied to news, especially fake news, this wreaks disastrous results as seen below.

Anger as a Motivator

Fake news is meant to elicit emotional responses from the reader and feed into the pre-established ideas in people’s heads. By using headlines that elicit a powerful emotional reaction from the reader, it adds to the chance that an article will be clicked upon. Anger is the emotion that makes people most likely to click and share an article.

Playing the System

This matters because of how news websites make money through the advertisement dispersed through the articles. News outlets can charge more for ad space when they have:

• clicks
• views
• shares

These statistics show companies that ads on the news outlet will be seen by more people therefore making ad space more valuable on that site. When people are subscribing and news outlets are faring well, truthful articles are enough to get the viewership a news outlet needs to stay afloat.

However real reporting costs money from paying reporters to travel to interview sources and depict the news at its source. It is much easier and less costly to fake news.

Craig Silverman, Buzzfeed media editor as of December 14, 2016, knows that fake news creators know this all too well. It is no difference to the young teens in Vela, not even in the same continent as the audience they target, or the idle young of a farming state in America what consequences occur from their articles. They get paid for very little legwork. They mostly copy paste specific snippets from other articles, as long as their headlines attract attention using the strategy discussed previously.

It is the same strategy that newsies had to use during the peak of yellow journalism. Paid by every issue they sell, they shouted out catchy headlines and cared little for the legitimacy of what they are selling. News of the dangerous clickbait variety has been around since the 1800s, and now it is making a big comeback.

Possible Solutions

This problem will only persist if left alone. Fake news still dwells online where young people get their daily dose of media, more so than televisions, newspapers, magazines, or paper books.

It is important that audiences stay vigilant. Approach media with deep skepticism. Check snopes.com and double check before you share sketchy articles with others.

There has been talk about an organization that could put a seal of approval on truthful news articles. There is still hard news and solid investigative reporting that deserves an audience. The credibility of news and journalism has taken a turn for the worse in the recent years, but truth can always be south out. The need for good journalism is not dying, just the ways that currently monitor or verify it.

While there can be nothing done about those who do not want to read much less consider other people’s opinions, truth is not in lesser demand. The newspapers that provide the network of journalists who do hard reporting have less of a grip on paper medias, but as a result of this fake news scare, subscriptions in reputable newspapers like the New York Times have increased as a result.

As long as the people remain optimistic and curious, there are always going to be those who share truth with others. The helpers are the ones to look for in times where fake news was not as outrageous as the candidates and the world may seem bleak.

Key Words: fake news, media, journalism