Well Informed 2.0 - "Fake News"

"Ex-Head Of Twitter News: Social Media Companies Alone Shouldn't Regulate 'Fake News'"

At times, I feel our perspective is narrowed because of social media. I understand that we all need a voice, and I do believe it's extremely important. For Pete sake, it's in the First Amendment of the United States of America (Freedom of Speech)! Though in today's world, we face a difficult challenge. That difficult challenge being, bias and fake news in the media.

I have found it difficult to take half of the posts I see on social media seriously. Especially throughout this past Presidential Election. I often see people posting things that either:
  1. Have no idea what they are talking about (idea offers no logic) 
  2. Think they know what they're taking about but their argument is twisted through false information (don't have all the facts) 
  3. Want attention from posting about politics (whether that be positive or negative attention) 
  4. That's really what they believe in, they offer strong points to defend their position (rare)
In this discussion, "Ex-Head Of Twitter News: Social Media Companies Alone Shouldn't Regulate 'Fake News'" it gets into the thoughts of Twitter and Facebook when it comes to fake news, (mainly twitter). It talks about how fake news has become an ongoing issue. Vivian Schiller (former head of news and journalism partnerships at Twitter and also the former CEO of NPR) goes on to tell her definition of fake news. "So my definition of fake news is a content-like object that is a story, an article, a video, a tweet that has been fabricated, completely invented out of thin air, intentionally for the purpose of misleading. So an example from the election, from the campaign was when a so-called news organization called the Denver Guardian - which, by the way, doesn't exist - wrote an article and pushed it on social media that said that the pope had endorsed Donald Trump. That's the perfect definition of fake news. It was intentionally designed to deceive." - Vivian Schiller

I agree with her in the sense that fake news is made up. But to me that is not all fake news can be. Fake news goes beyond creating a story and putting it out there. When it comes to fake material/news I think tweets play a big role. Whether it comes from a "verified account", or a "personal" one; people can twist words/stories into something completely different; in-turn, leading you to shift or solidify your existing opinion. I think this is where a big part of this issue takes place. I have seen time after time fake tweets creating fake tweets.

For Example: Unexplained World @ClassicPict Tweeted this picture with "Donald Trump v Adolf Hitler" as the caption.

I think it's pretty misleading to compare Trump to Hitler. Does this mean I love Trump? No. But it's unfair to make such a drastic comparison. Tweets like this change peoples opinions. I see them all the time. This picture perfictly discribes how "some truths" with twisted thoughts can lead people to believe differently. 

It's hard to distinguish between fact and fiction. It is important to know everything you can about a topic, then form an opinion. Check sources, and gain as much incite about a subject/topic is vital to understanding and creating "well informed opinions". Do more digging before believing what is "tweeted" out into the world. I've also found looking at topics from several different points of view helps me to better understand. It's all about balance. Search into both sides of an issue or topic, and genuinely try to understand where people are coming from. I believe that if an individual does the previously stated things, they can clearly decide where they stand politically.

To me, fake news can have some truth in it. It spins and twists words to create a different understanding of a story. Schiller would argue differently. She states "Well, lumped in there is a lot of stuff, including stories that were intended to be serious journalism but just got it wrong, statements that are made by public officials that are wrong but are reported. And then there's this whole sort of mushy area in the middle of stories that are missing context, might be laden with innuendo, missing facts." I can see where she's coming from, in the sense that made up stories are separate from journalists. But any lie or falsely put out statement is fake news.  Majority of the time, fake news involves bad journalism. It's as simple as that. It seems as if Schiller's calling what should be known as "fake news" as bad journalism to cover up Twitter. Maybe she is trying to help them by shifting blame?

Schiller also goes on to tell how she feels it would be a very difficult "slippery slope" if social media companies tried to determine what is and is not fake news stories. I disagree. I think they can create better regulations to what can be posted on official News accounts. I with they would go through multiple sources and create unbiased news.

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