Issue Exploration

Foundationally, the issue of the persistent acceptance of false or misinformation is still an object of study to this day. Psychologist and sociologists around the globe conduct studies and pour over literature to try and establish links between cognitive dissonance, overconfidence, personal bias, and predisposition. None of these experts or their studies seem to have been able to provide a consistent, quantitative link to the cause of the explosion of deliberate ‘fake news,’ and the overwhelming consumption of it. But, studies have been shown that the less educated one is, the more likely they are to absorb singular sources of news and policy information. Conservatives (Note: I am attempting to remain impartial in my issue, so any partisan data shown will be raw statistics, not necessarily opinions of my own) have been shown to rely on singular news groups than liberals, specifically, Fox News. The liberal equivalent of Fox News would be CNN, also not unfamiliar with legitimate (and fabricated) claims of publishing biased, unsubstantiated news as fact.

I posit that Americans absorb outrageous, deliberate, and wholly false news specifically tailored to their own disposition, while rejecting sound, accurate data of any issue they are in opposition to. Why do they do this? While that is too ambiguous of a question to answer, it lies within to fields: simple human nature, and the decaying values of society. It is human nature to digest palatable information, it’s convenient, causes no internal strife, and provides more ammunition in case of an argument. By extension, the average American, who is not particularly politically active, (only 60% of eligible voters voted in 2016, with midterms and local elections drastically decreasing) will not concern themselves heavily with politics, so they will happily tune into the pundit who agrees with them and base their schema on the opinion of that pundit. A pew research study showed that 60% of American adults believe that the news should present just the facts, and that interpretation is not necessary. In the same study, 81% of registered voters believe that Trump and Clinton supporters not only disagree on matters of policy, but on matters of fact. To summarize the findings, they lean toward the notion that Americans wants the news to be the facts–but only as they want the facts to be. Recently, the “backfire effect” purported that as facts are presented that disagree with a predisposition, that person will sink further into their own beliefs. However, this effect failed to be replicated across all studies except for one, revealing that the root cause isn’t that Americans refuse to accept rival information–it’s that Americans aren’t exposed to rival information, and if they are, it’s presented by somebody they perceived as already biased, defeating any data they can show. Society has simple be geared toward satisfying personal whims, and with every niche so readily satisfied, close-minded echo-chambers are becoming more and more common, and now reaching a point of eruption across political lines.                                     Beyond the philosophical ramifications, there are real-world threats to ‘fake news.’ In 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped approximately 200 girls from a small village in Nigeria. When news broke, the tag “#BringBackOurGirls” trended, showing worldwide unity. However, the Nigerian government refused to acknowledge the event had ever happened, this lead to a deadlock, and an inability of rescuers to aid the girls. Nigeria spun a narrative that entirely denied the situation, despite clear and present evidence that it had, and since the people of Nigeria had access to only state-run media, (if that) there were no protests, no outrage, because the people were told falsehoods presented as fact. This story is told in Stephanie Busari’s Ted Talk “How Fake News Does Real Harm”

While no issue specifically pertains to this, every issue, at the root, is; from the discussion, presentation, discourse, and application, the ability of politicians and their constitutions to discern truth from lies, specifically in the free press guaranteed in the US, is vital to maintain a proper, healthy, functioning democracy. Currently, no organization is addressing this, likely due to the inherent bias roadblock, as well as the causally-undertermined reasoning behind the situation. All that can be done is personal education on media sourcing and legitimacy, how to fact-check, and discerning opinion from fact. Otherwise, we’re trending toward an ever-present collapse due to constant gridlock, cherry-picked facts, and explosive opinions.

 

 

 

Sources:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/18/news-media-interpretation-vs-facts/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/02/health/fake-news-conservative-liberal.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/fox-news-donald-trump-fake-news-trophy-media-cnn-nbc-msnbc-us-voters-poll-a8086421.html

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2819073

https://www.cnn.com/2016/11/11/politics/popular-vote-turnout-2016/index.html

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