What is Fake News?

Ever since the 2016 presidential election, the term “fake news” has been thrown around by both parties. Popularized by Donald Trump for stating that the news network CNN was altering stories to fit their own political agenda, the term is now a common household understanding here in the United States.

“Fake news” can certainly exist, but ever since this term has taken off, the journalism and the media have almost been demonized by the common individual. People struggle knowing who and what sources they can actually truth for unbiased, objective information.

Fake news can be seen as when trying to convey news, journalists or news sources either lie or tailor the given information they have in order help fit their own political agenda. This can be seen on various news networks no matter what their political leaning is. From Fox News to CNN, people use the information given to them in order to help fit and defend their own political narrative.

I know one example that I saw a lot was many of my friend’s parents posting about Bernie Sanders and how the way he would tax would be devastating to them and to this country. Now I am not necessarily a Sander’s fan, but after researching I saw that taxes would roughly stay the same for the average individual (like the people complaining on facebook) and would only rise drastically for individuals making anywhere from 250,000–10,000,000 a year.

I promise my friend’s parents are not making that much money.

More on social media, people are working to combat fake news and to fact check what they post. Instagram and Facebook both have filters that alert readers that what they are looking at might not be accurate. They also have the fact check under the post with a link to what the accurate information is.