What is Fake News?

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Fake news can be best defined as news that simply is not true and is filled with unfactual information. Fake news has many disadvantages for viewers. One disadvantage of fake news is that misinformation can shape viewers' and readers' thoughts. Below is one great example of someone manipulating the media by publishing fake news. 

On social media, someone claimed that Chuck Norris along with his wife, Gena, recorded a video about the Biden Administration. In this video, Chuck Norris made the statement, "Our great country and freedom are under attack". While someone on social media claimed that this statement was a response to the Biden administration, it was actually posted in 2012, and it was about former President Barack Obama (Media Bias Fact Check, 2022). In reality, Chuck Norris and his wife's video was altered to make it seem like something it was not, and in reality, they were urging conservatives to vote in the election in 2012. This video was posted on TikTok and then spread to other social media outlets. Below is the link to the Facebook video that was posted:


While doing further research, it was found that this is considered a "blatant lie". Why would someone make this up? Well, someone made this up to potentially shape viewers' thoughts, for entertainment, or to go viral and gain views. Using the video of Chuck Norris from 2012 was a pretty clever idea since the video is older and is not current. If viewers did not see the video in 2012, then it would be easy to convince viewers that the video was recent and that it is about President Biden. 







References:

Media Bias Fact Check. (2022, February 7). The Latest Fact Checks curated by Media Bias Fact Check 

Comments

  1. Rylee RobinsonFebruary 8, 2022 at 11:41 AM

    Fake News is sadly everywhere. With good judgement, most people can pick and choose what is fact and fiction, but some things seem like they could be true. That is why it is so important that we do our research into things. We cannot assume everything we see on the internet, especially in today's age, is true. I did not even know about this incident with Chuck Norris, that is just a prime example of how people can spin the narrative.

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  2. Quinton WheelerFebruary 21, 2022 at 8:10 PM

    Fake news is all over the place and it is really unfortunate that before you can share anything over social media you have to go through a fact checker and then make sure the news has more than one source that doesn’t have conflicting information. Fake news has made every honest person into a mini journalist, and it does really take the convenience away from the share button to post content on social media. There is always the small caveat of you possibly sharing false information that can mislead a personal judgement or perspective. We live in the age of information and one of the greatest cons that comes from living in this age is that we can occasionally live in the age of misinformation too.

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