Fake News Synthesis Essay

What is fake news? There is so much news flying around on TV, Radio, Social Media, etc. and everyone wants us to believe that their news is real news and not fake. So, how do we decide which news is fake and which is not? Katy Steinmetz in her article, “How Your Brain Tricks You into Believing Fake News' argues that everyone falls for fake news. Motion Masters, produced an informational video, “Fake News: Part 1”, to help us to determine if a news source is credible and not fake. Mike Gonzalez explains how liberals support the issue of fake news in “Don't Let Liberals End Opinion Diversity Under Cover of ‘Fake News’ Campaign.”

The article “How Your Brain Tricks You into Believing Fake News' by Katy Steinmetz, a writer at Time Magazine, explains how everyone falls for fake news, even people with the highest education. Steinmetz gave us a real-life example by using a secondary source of an experiment Stanford University conducted. The experiment had a professor check this article for credibility, after examining the article the professor concluded that the source was reliable. Turns out that the article came from a source that had many controversial articles and The Southern Law of Poverty designated that the website is run by a hate group. After the experiment concluded the question remains: Why are even the smartest among us so bad at making judgments about what to trust on the web? And how can we get better? Steinmetz goes on to explain how your brain tricks you into believing that the articles that you scroll past are real because parts of the heading may be true but are mostly false. For example, Steinmetz said “Studies have shown that people assume that the higher something appears in Google search results, the more reliable it is. But Google’s algorithms are surfacing content based on keywords, not truth.” The way we think can cause us to believe fake news before even looking at the article. One other point Steinmetz made was that we are busy on social media and see so much information our brains try to dissect all the information into what's real or not, but outside influences can help our brains do that. If your family or friend shares something with you then you are more likely to believe that it's true. Steinmetz explained how technology has gotten so much better, which makes it harder to know what fact or real, but there are still things you can do to help not spread fake news.

The article “How your brain tricks you into believing fake news.” by Katy Steinmetz was directed to people who read Time Magazine. I thought the article was very credible due to the fact she used quotes and examples from other credible people and sources. The Stanford experiment Steinmetz included at the beginning of the article made the article very credible, but she kept adding and supporting her other experiments or studies with facts. For example, Steinmetz used a study from Google but then used information from the vice president of Google Richard Gingras to back up the study. I thought the purpose of the article was to spread awareness and to explain that it’s not that you're dumb when you fall for fake news articles. That’s why she included the Stanford University experiment to give a real-life example of a highly educated person falling for noncredible resources or articles.

Motion Masters, a production studio, had an informational video “Fake News: Part 1” which explained the background of fake news and how we as people can determine if it came from a credible source. Motion Masters showed how fake news affects who or whatever the article is directed at for more than just that moment. For example, “George Washington was accused of not wanting the Revolutionary War because of his love and loyalty to the king.” Many people's points of view changed about George Washington and still today the letters about him still affect his view on some people. After explaining the effects fake news has Motion Masters wanted to help explain and show how people can determine if the article has come from a reliable source. Examples of ways to check the website and article for credibility are checking the URLs, checking grammar and fonts on the website as well as looking up the topic, and seeing if a major credible news source is broadcasting the same topic. All of those will help you determine if you think the article is coming from a credible source.

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The video “Fake News: Part 1” by Motion Masters was an educational video that was made to reach students as well as everyone who wants to learn more about fake news. The reason I thought the video was educational was that it explained the history behind fake news. For example, “Fake news started as early as 1500s when the printing press was created”. The way they explained the history of fake news with different educated guest speakers made the video credible. They used different highly educated people to explain parts of the history and how to determine the credibility of a source which just strengthened their argument of finding credible sources with sources backing up the article.

The article “Don't Let Liberals End Opinion Diversity Under Cover of ‘Fake News’ Campaign” by Mike Gonzalez is an article about fake news but slanted towards a more conservative view. The article was intended for people who read the Daily Signal a newspaper owned by The Heritage Foundation, which has more conservative views on topics. Gonalez uses examples from the recent election and Donald Trump with his alleged connections with Stalin. Connected with the alleged connections Gonzalez goes on to talk about how the fake news searches on Google have been increasingly growing since November 2016. After Jim Rutenberg a writer for The New York Times and a more liberal viewed writer. Gonzalez says that the Google search increase is because of Rutenberg’s article on Nov. 6, 2016. Rutenberg in that article used “basic facts” that were trusted and backed by a liberal view.

The article “Don't Let Liberals End Opinion Diversity Under Cover of ‘Fake News’ Campaign” by Mike Gonzalez was a real article about fake news, but this article is different from the other articles because Gonzalez has a slanted view towards a conservative view. The article's credibility wasn’t as clear since it seemed opinionated, especially when he started taking little shots at former president Barack Obama. “We know which planet our 44th president inhabits, and which he thinks is in a galaxy far, far away.” This means that he thinks the former president is picking and saying opinions that he thinks about unrealistic things. The article has a more conservation view because it was written with a conservative view and is intended to reach a more conservative audience. I believe that the main argument of liberals helping support the issue of fake news was weakened when he put more of his opinions into the article.

All three of the articles that we analyzed above were all about fake news, but they all had a different point of view and were intended to reach a different group of people. For example, Stinemetz intended to show that everyone falls for fake news, even the highly educated. But Motion Masters was giving everyone a way to educate themselves about fake news and how to determine if the source is credible so that you don’t spread fake news. Gonzalez was more opinionated, which is why I thought it was the least credible out of all the articles. The way that Stinemetz used so many credible experiments and experts made the credibility good. The information stuck with me more after reading that Google VP said that the studies Motion Master highly educated people who specialized in the topic to help explain the history and gave you reliable ways to determine if the source/ article is credible. The first thing that I thought about after reading Gonzalez’s article was how I could go back and connect it back to Birk & Birk. Birk & Birk explained to us that even fake information can all be perceived differently, which happened with these articles but mainly to “Don't Let Liberals End Opinion Diversity Under Cover of ‘Fake News’ Campaign”. The slanting came out differently for all the articles, Gonazlez took a slant against the liberal view, and Stinemetz and Motion Masters tried to have a more balanced presentation of the facts on fake news.

In conclusion, how do we decide which news is fake and which is not? Katy Steinmetz helped explain how everyone falls for fake news in her article How Your Brain Tricks You into Believing Fake News. “Fake News: Part 1” by Motion Masters helped show you ways to determine if a source is credible and not fake. Mike Gonzalez explained how liberals support the issue of fake news in “Don't Let Liberals End Opinion Diversity Under Cover of ‘Fake News’ Campaign.”

Work Cited

1. Films Media Group, film distributor, et al. Fake News: Part 1. Motion Masters, 2017.
2. Steinmetz, Katy. “How Your Brain Tricks You into Believing Fake News.” Time, Time, 9 Aug. 2018, time.com/5362183/the-real-fake-news-crisis/.
3. Gonzalez, Mike. “Don't Let Liberals End Opinion Diversity Under Cover of ‘Fake News’ Campaign.” The Heritage Foundation, 19 Jan. 2018, www.heritage.org/civil-society/commentary/dont-let-liberals-end-opinion-diversity-under-cover-fake-news-campaign (Links to an external site.).