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Social media influence on public opinion
Impact of fake news
Impact of social media on public opinion
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Because news reporters are no longer the only ones to present information, citizens feel their way into the story, thus creating many layers of journalism. This use of affective publics does have both pros and cons, however. With many citizens presenting their beliefs, news on social media is powered by affective statements of opinion, fact, or a blend of both. In other words, many persuasive statements are opinion based rather fact based. On the other hand, with a large portion of society starting to dominate the media industry, citizens can emphasize and expose many underrepresented
Throughout this piece there are twenty-one words that contribute to an underlying belief of this article, such as “social media,” “web,” “internet,” “forum,” and “post.” These words show that one of the focuses of this article is the form in which rumors are spread on the internet, as they are the terms that appear quite often. In addition, the context in which social media is presented can be identified through further examination. The repetition of words such as “gossip,” “commenters,” and “comments” sixteen times shows that not only is the author focusing on the internet platform, but also what negative things are being presented on these sites. Finally, the way in which this story paints social media can be determined by the use of a negative word choice sixteen times.
The news; a common part of the American household since newspapers were first produced. But the news the public reads may have more effect than just informing. The newspaper then grew into the television news hour and from there the Internet. There are so many ways of getting the information on events going on around the world and locally and some sources have Levine popular because of their entertainment value. In Amusing Ourselves to Depth, Greg Beato informs about the information and entertainment value of the “fake news” shows and publications.
One hundred years ago nobody heard about the news or current events from Facebook or the newest tweet. Until fairly recently the most up to date news had to be heard through the grapevine or read in a newspaper. Since the creation of the internet and the mass media that comes with it, information can now be spread all the way across the world in the time it takes to hit the enter button on a computer or phone and upload it to the internet. Some people think that this is a bad thing because so many things that are uploaded can be either false information or simply information that is misleading and could teach individuals the wrong thing. However, if mass media is used in the right way it can be beneficial to the accessibility of valuable information,
In the story social media can be deadly by Leonard Pitts Jr. and the graphs U.S. Teen have mixed feelings about social media. Both help say that social media can be bad and even deadly. The story social media can be deadly by Leonard Pitts Jr. is about a man who got shot on a light rail train because a guy was swinging a gun around and no one noticed because they were to busy on their phones and didn't see him swinging a gun around so when the 20 year justin valdez was getting off the train and 30 year old Nikhom Thephakaysone shot justin in the back of the head.
In her article titled The Flip Side Of Internet Fame, Jessica Bennett focuses on how social media is a place that’s full of hysteria. Bennett says, “Online there are few checks and hardly any monitoring. Moreover, studies show that the anonymity of the net encourages people to say things they normally wouldn’t.” In an attempt to fit in, many take the side of the most common posted opinion even if extremely vulgar or offensive, which can send a large group of people in the same state of fury. These incidents on the internet can have a more hysteric effect, entire cities, states, and countries have felt endangered over a post on a website.
The Internet is widely used around the world, originally acting as a source to find information quickly online, but nowadays it has developed so much that people also use it as a way to communicate with others, as well as sharing opinions on blogs and other social media. In the article titled “The Things People Say: Rumors in an Age of Unreason”, published in the New Yorker (November 2009), staff writer Elizabeth Kolbert discusses how individuals only believe what agrees with their views, and argues that people are the source of rumors and misinformation, especially online. Kolbert supports this claim by first introducing the video of a birther speaking out against President Barack Obama’s birth certificate as an example, describing the skepticism
During the 2014 Ebola panic, a research group consisting of scholars from Arizona State University, Purdue University, and Oregon State University found that, as each news report relating to the ebola virus was released, an increase in ebola related searches within social media bases, like Twitter, occured (Towers, Afzal, Bernal, Bliss, et al., 1). These searches consisted of the symptoms and spread of the virus. The increase shows that the news, a trusted entity in American society, constantly running articles gives rise to panic of disease in people’s daily life. Even though there were only a few people to contract the Ebola virus, the news played segments on the disease as if a pandemic was inevitable, thus increasing the fear in American citizens. In addition to the Ebola virus panic that swept the nation in 2014, a malfunction with an online epidemic tracker caused widespread hysteria over the influenza virus (Towers, Afzal, Bernal, Bliss, et al., 1).
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge” - Stephen Hawking. People tend to believe they know more than they really do. They turn to the news, books, music, or even art to learn about the world surrounding them. What people don’t understand is everything you learn from the media is being told by another person just like yourself. Someone with feelings and emotions and most likely a different opinion and agenda than most people.
News media experts have noted that Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was the first demonstration of how disaster response was changing and that individuals possessed “an unprecedented capacity to access, share, create and apply information” (Nachison, 2005). The use of social media facilitated collaborative online efforts to locate missing people and emergency housing, and coordinate volunteers (Nelson et al., 2010 as cited in Goldfine, 2011). Hurricane Katrina was one of the first natural disasters that “marked the coming of age of participatory media” (Haddow & Haddow, 2009). During Hurricane Katrina, social media was established as the ‘go-to’ platform for information (PR Newswire, 2011). As this disaster occurred when the internet was gaining popularity,
The central theme of media manipulation and the consequences of that are explained and uncovered in Ryan Holiday’s book Trust Me I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator. Holiday offers a brutally honest insight into the world of PR and journalism, one that many people can have trouble accepting and one that makes us doubt every form of media and advertisement around us and exposes the twisted relationship between online media and marketing. In the beginning of the book, Holiday admits that he is a liar, but asks the readers to believe everything he says. As mentioned in an article published by Poynter institute, “He has a point to make, but he 's like the addict warning of the dangers of drugs, all the while snorting a line and shaking his head at how bad it is” (Silverman, 2012).
“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” (Ian, Jurassic park). A famous movie quote that holds the weight of every scientific breakthrough, including the process of genetically engineering babies. When trying for children, all want healthy, normal, children; but, what is normal? Normal is fluid.
As a result, people have created a vicious cycle in which they search, read, believe, and share what they have read, without considering the reliability of the information and news. Technology has influenced communication and journalism; as a result, the media has adopted a business model based on clicks and advertising. The combination of people 's need for information and the greed of news corporations have allowed for the proliferation of “fake news,” a term that has gained importance in the last two years. Fake news is “completely made up, manipulated to resemble credible journalism and attract maximum attention and, with it, advertising revenue” (Hunt, 2016). News has the power to alter people’s perceptions which can impact their decisions related to economy, democratic process, and their lives and jobs.
Furthermore, fake news can be disseminated rapidly. Due to the widespread use of social media,
Some info might not be true. This happened on Twitter when 64% of people that got news on this site later found out that it wasn’t true. Since information can also be spread out so fast, these false facts can also be sent to millions of other viewers. So you heard about some Trump new, huh? Maybe don’t go for it on the social