Fake news

Fake news is a problem. It's an issue that has recently become more relevant than ever. And today we've read a few articles about today's and formerly well-known fake news. We have talked about how easy it is to be fooled and how immensely it spreads.

Today we got feedback on our thoughts about fake news. After reading a few of the comments it seemed obvious that this was a subject that brought up a lot of frustration. However, it looks like most people know how to deal with it. The majority of the comments had the same basic ideas on how to deal with it, and that this was a serious problem today. Some of the suggestions on how to spot the fake news were; “Check both sides of the argument, make sure the sources are reliable and check the language used and the spelling of words.” They also seemed to have the same point of view on Donald Trump’s campaign and the manipulation. Although most of the comments were very similar, there was one that stuck out with a completely different view on the story. Cayden T. Lewis, being one of the responding readers stated “Fake News isn’t the real problem that hits society. Its society itself. How can people be so naive to believe things Hillary Clinton having a child pornography ring in pizzerias”.

Google, the innovative company that we all know and love has recently come out with some information about how they are going to revolutionize the world of fake news. Most people know how to use the search engine, most people use it, but what people do not know is how it works. “Fact-checking and preventing fake news from appearing in search results will remain a big priority for search engines in 2017” Ian Bowden states on SearchEngingeLand. Going for an achievement like categorizing fake and real news could be a real struggle. However, we have an idea of how they will receive such results. The site mentioned above, being one of our key informants, have listed how Google can deal (or already is dealing) with the issue currently. Mr. Bowden writes:
“1. Manually reviewing websites
 2. Algorithmically demoting fake news
 3. Removing incentives to create fake news
 4. Signaling when content has been fact-checked
 5. Funding fact-checking organizations”
Personally I believe this all is a step in the right direction, but there’s always room for improvement. Manual labor for checking every site seems unlikely, but with algorithms they are able to single out insignificant news outlets.

From the 3rd of March:
Today we have spoken to South African students over Skype. We questioned them about how their society performs and how they are affected by fake news. The South African media is currently promoting a story about how students and teachers of specific schools are being recruited by the Illuminati. Illuminati being 'an organization that controls the world, and always has'. It originates from conspiracy theories of how the government and societies work. The story revolves around recruiters giving students cocktails of rasberry and blood.