In the novel “1984,” written by George Orwell, the city of Oceania is controlled by an authoritative figure called Big Brother. Winston, the main character, struggles to know the truth about the outside world due to the control of Big Brother. In the textbook Let's Talk, written by Andrea Lunsford, strategies to detect false information are given, as well as, ways to find the truth. Furthermore, modern society struggles with misinformation about important issues because of the source of information, technological advancements, and because fake news is more appealing than the truth. First, the reason modern society struggles with misinformation about important issues is because of the source. In “1984,” by George Orwell, Winston's job was …show more content…
According to Let’s Talk by Andrea Lunsford, a study showed how various tweets favored fake news. The text states, ‘“A 2018 study by MIT scholars examined tweets about 126,000 major news stories in English and came to the conclusion that ‘the truth simply can’t compete with hoax and rumor”’ (Lunsford 69). The results of this study show how people are more attracted to the news with rumors and this causes people to shift away from facts. Lunsford mentions how fake news spreads more efficiently, limiting true information. The text states, “‘ fake news and false rumors reach more people, penetrate deeper into the social network, and spread much faster than accurate stories’’’ (Lunsford 69). These reasons are why more fake news is present and it blocks out facts from showing up on people's feed. If there is more fake news visible then it will be harder overall to find facts. Furthermore, the text gives the reasons why fake news is more successful. The text states the reasons as being, “First, they’re often outlandish and novel in a way that attracts attention. Second, the content of such stories is often negative and tends to arouse very strong emotions. Third, they use language that evokes surprise or disgust, and seems to lead to the information going viral” (Lunsford 69). The evidence described proves that the vast amount of fake news going viral is more viewed and if people are more emotionally attached to the misinformation then it is very difficult to reach the truth hidden by these false