Is the Media Responsible for Fake News?

In a world where the media is watching its mouth, fake news has become the latest cardinal sin. If the media reports anything that is not entirely true, then the journalists and reporters are labeled with the daunting label of 'fake news'. But surprisingly enough, the main culprits in the fake news wave are ordinary people on social media. More misinformation is spread due to people sharing new stories attached to their biased opinions than media posting false stories.

According to a recent article published by Mashable, there is a glitch in Facebook's software which allows users to tamper with media content and change the message to fit their own personal views. For example, a user can take an article with the pinned image being a political figure, change the headline and then other users will share the link without fact-checking the source of the information. Changing the integrity of a headline on social media (Facebook especially) is dangerous because a shockingly high number of people only read the headline before they repost, not even bothering to open the article. This can be damaging to the reputation of media outlets because they are being linked to information they did not even publish.

 Fake news is also generated by the general population simply sharing opinionated editorials to Facebook and referring to them as true. The restrictions that opinion pieces and credible media outlets must abide by are vastly different and must be regarded as separate sources of information. For example, an opinion blog can post anything under the sun they want, no matter how biased or exaggerated it is. Credible news sources like CNN or MSNBC have limitations as to what they can say about certain issues and are required to back up their information with facts. When these opinionated blog posts are shared to other platforms, people just see the headline and picture and don't think twice about what they are posting. These mindless posts consequently share information to millions of people who are unaware that they are receiving false information.

In a world where it is easy to blame the liberals for spreading fake news, it is, in fact, the typical American's post on Facebook that spreads more false information.