What is Fake News?

It’s a kind of trend in the 21^st century to hide the facts and present a situation that doesn’t even exist. I am sure today everyone every day come across fake news and get affected. In this article, you’ll get to unfold the real meaning and reason behind this trend.

Let’s start with the meaning of fake news, so “ What is a Fake News?”

Fake news is defined as a “piece of information” that is deliberately falsified with no verifiable facts. It is fabricated to change people’s mindset and perspective towards a situation or a person. Commonly, the main agenda of fake news is to publicize political propaganda or to mislead people about an important issue.

Types of fake news:

The world of fake news is not just a news story we see every day on our televisions and read in our newspapers, its world is much bigger than that. Some stories are showed and written with full verifiable facts and details but are written in a way that keeps aside the central idea of the news and focuses intentionally on one’s viewpoint. Others are presented with a cup of truths but lack circumstantial details.

So it is quite important to get an idea of the types of fake news to spot the difference between real and fake news.

1. Misinformation: It is a kind of illusory, erroneous and ambiguous information created or unfurled mistakenly whose intention is not to delude anyone.
   
   
2. Disinformation: A kind of information fabricated and escalated purposely to mislead the truth or sway the public’s opinion towards a person or a situation. 

   

                                                                                               Source: Google

Why fake news is a problem?

Many reasons that make fake news problematic are:

1. “Planned lies” can be the first reason because it can make people be convinced about the pieces of information that are false.
   
   
2. “ Mistrust” can be another reason because when someone keeps lying to you about the facts or write or show something untrue, it ultimately makes people develop mistrust in the media and this can be dangerous.
   
   
3. If a lot of fake news is circulating and many people are believing in that means they are getting stuck inside foam of false information keeping them away from real truths and forcing them to live in a world that is entirely different from the real world.

Why are we discussing fake news?

Fake news has become a serious issue these days especially when political parties are deliberately using fake news to disgrace their opponent and to reserve their seat in the elections.

Some examples of fake news :

• A man pretended to be deaf for 62 years to avoid his wife: It is kind of funny news but surely a fake one. This article gathered so much attention and got more than 100k views. Looking up to the Twitter handles, it was mostly the men who reposted this article.
  
  
• Rs2000 note came with the equipped chip using spy technology: This fake news was even covered by mainstream media due to which doubt and confusion were created among the people.
  
  
• The most common and famous example is the “US Elections 2017”. There was much fake news related to Hillary Clinton. Some of them were:

1. “ WikiLeaks confirms Hillary sold Weapons to ISIS. Then drops Another bombshell! Breaking News” ( 789,000, The Political Insider)
   
   
2. “ Just Read the law: Hillary is Disqualified from holding any Federal Office” ( 701,000, Ending the Fed)

All these fake items of news created mistrust in the US citizens and affected their choice to vote in the Elections. It ultimately helped the opponent “ Donald Trump” to win the US elections 2017.

How does Fake news affect society and everyday life?

1. As we have already seen that a small piece of false information can make a mess and in extreme situations, it can also affect democratic operations such as Elections.
   
   
2. The main aim of fake news is to escalate untrue information about someone and this can create chaos among people. And political parties across the world are using this as a tool to get benefits in elections.
   
   
3. Fake news is misleading our youth to believe in a situation that doesn’t even exist and lowering down their ability to think rationally and critically.
   
   
4. Media is a very powerful tool that can change the future of a country but today it is becoming difficult to spot the difference between the truth and narration. News channels these days are only selling fake news to raise their ratings and this results in developing a sense of suspicion in people towards other people and media.
   
   
5. Sometimes, fake news creates a dispute among people; for example, a piece of fake news circulating as “A” community is being lynched by community “B” so this news can have serious consequences as community “A” can develop a feeling of anger and revenge towards community “B”.

Conclusion: All these media publishers and anchors already know that the public is tempted towards an appealing image and title. Also on the internet, your single click can reveal your interests in various issues and this information has used bait to capture your attention.

So it is your sole responsibility not to believe everything you see or hear and always try to find the real source and truth behind every news you hear or read. This is the only way to get away from this mess of fake news.

Do share your experiences and views over fake news in the comment section below.