SOCIAL MEDIA AND FAKE NEWS

 Social media is a collective term for websites and application that focus on communication, community based input, interaction, content sharing and collaboration. Mobile applications make these platforms easily accessible. Some popular examples of general social media platforms include Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, instagram.

Fake news are stories created to deliberately misinform or deceive readers. Fake news is often created to influence views or for political motives. It can also be a profitable business for online publishers. Fake news can easily proliferate, particularly in terms of political turbulence and instability.

Many people now get news from social media sites and often, it can be difficult to tell if the news are credible or not. 

Lots of things you read online especially in your social media feeds may appear to be true but often isn’t. In the last few years, numbers of fake news stories have circulated via social media platforms eg whatsapp, twitter, facebook etc because they are propagated online faster than we can ever imagine. As a result of this, many blogs, social media profiles, content creators/publishers have used this to their advantage as those news have a high potential of reaching large audiences. 

Some examples of fake news include:

Putting a viral video clip of Biden in context: a 10 second clip of Jo Biden showed him delivering a quote devoid of the full context which construed his meaning.

Fake corona virus cures: a recipe circulating on social media claimed that garlic cured coronavirus.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo fake death: A rumor circulating that Olusegun Obasanjo was shot dead by assasins at his private residence.

Fake news are especially problematic in democratic systems and there is growing debate on on how to address these issues without undermining the benefits of digital media. In order to maintain an open democratic system, it is importanr that government and consumers work together to solve these problems. 

Government should promote news literacy and strong proessional journalism in their societies. The news industry must provide high quality journalism in order to build public trust and correct fake news and disinformation without legitimizing them. Technology companies should invest in tools that identify fake news, reduce financial incentives for those who profit from disinformation and improve online accountability. Finally, individuals should follow a diversity of news sources and be skeptical of what they read and watch.

NAME: METU JANE CHIOMA 

STATE CODE: OS/21B/1289

COURSE: PSYCHOLOGY

INSTITUTION: UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN

STATE OF ORIGIN: IMO STATE