Did you vote in the 2016 presidential elections? Were you uncomfortable with the chaos happening online during the voting period? Are you unsure if you are ready for the next elections in 2020? If the answer is yes, then keep on reading.
I decided to go to a panelist discussion that talked about how social media and fake news affected our democracy. I wanted to know myself on what faculty experts had to say about this issue and share my knowledge with all of you.
The panelists were a group of great-minded people that gave a lot of insight on how social media took a major role in the elections – Rosanna Guadagno, Lillian Lee and Victoria Rubin.
Rosanna presented her studies on how social influence intertwines with fake news. She brought up the fact that many people were more likely to believe whatever was presented on their screens because it’s on their mobile devices. She talked about her case study that revealed more people were prone to believe a list of football facts that were presented on a phone because it was published online.
She did the same with actual football fans and the difference was that the informed football fans challenged the information that they were faced with. They came to the conclusion that all the facts that Rosanna presented on her phone were in fact, false.
So, what does this mean? It means that people are easily persuaded by information that is presented on a device. Why should you care? Because that is how fake news is created – when you are not verifying stories and automatically believing it. Are we really that gullible? Are you and I easily persuaded?
During the 2016 elections, it was discovered that the many hateful ads against Hillary Clinton were actually created by Russian trolls. Unfortunately, many people believed the accuracy of the ads and were shared around social media. Not only did the fake ads mislead the people, but it influenced people to not vote for her.
Aren’t you concern if the content you see on your phone is fake? How can we stop this? How can we make sure that we filter out the fake news and bring forward the truth?
That is what Lillian and Victoria talked about. They mentioned that it is up to us to know what is real and what isn’t. They informed us about a resource they created that they think can help us prevent the spread of fake news – automation, regulation and education.
With automation and education, they have created a news browser that can verify the credibility of a news source. They state that it is more accurate in discovering fake news than what the normal person can find; however, their browser cannot control the effects these fake new sources have on us. That part is up to us to inform others about what is real and what is fake.
Regulation is not fully established yet, only because many people are on different sides about whether the internet should be regulated by the government.
Take this into consideration when the 2020 elections come up. Becoming aware of the deceptful information that had taken a toll on our democracy should be a life lesson for all of us. We have the power to voice what we believe in. No one should have the opportunity to take advantage of us and our power. It is by having these conversations, that we can move forward in trying to become smarter in detecting the fake news that tries to ruin our democracy.
