Among the many things that came out of the 2016 Presidential Campaign, the American public is treated to a new catch phrase known as “Fake News”. This phrase, which was originally coined by President Donald Trump, has actually become very popular in only a few years.
In fact, President Trump went so far to identify the Top 10 Fake News Stories of 2017. Congratulations to CNN as they were the hands down winner for cranking out Fake News. The most hilarious of the stories was where CNN actually cut out video footage in attempt to make it appear that President Trump was feeding Choi fish wrong.
Why CNN was the Fake News Award Winner
During a visit to Japan, President Trump and Japanese President Abe were jointly feeding fish in a Choi pond. CNN cut out the footage of the Japanese President feeding the fish so that they could claim that President Trump fed the fish wrong. But the missing footage showed the President Trump fed them exactly the same way as President Abe. It seems that CNN was very desperate to make President Trump look bad.
So with all the Fake News floating around out there, it very important to be aware of the tricks they are using to deceive their readers.
5 Ways to Identify Fake News
Let us examine the common methods that are being used to deceive readers these days.
Fake News Articles are Often Poorly Written
The objective of Fake News is to sway many opinions, and to do it as quickly as possible. Therefore, creating a well written article is not required. The only thing is required is that it strong emphasize three or four major points.
The creators of these pieces of content understand that most people these days only skim articles. Therefore, they tend to push their major points by using headers throughout the article that pushes the main points.
In the end, it is speed and quantity that really counts. The desire is getting out hundreds of articles in the shortest time possible. One rule of propaganda is that if people see the same message over and over again in a short period of time, then they eventually begin believing it – whether it is true or not.
Headlines Do not Match the Story
This is a huge sign of Fake News. The most important part of the entire article is the headline. Fake News generators realize that the headline will be read far more times than the article, so the headline can actually say most anything.
This is why we are seeing the most outrageous headlines today than any time in history. Start skimming some of these articles with engaging headlines – you will be surprised at how many times the words of the article do not match the outrageousness of their headline.
Take Note of the Article’s Source
You will be surprised of the sources that people are using today to justify a sensational headline and story. Do not be alarmed if you discover that many of these hit pieces are using a random piece from a social media account as their “story source”.
However, there is a disgraceful method that many journalists are using now and that is the “anonymous source”. This type of source used to be very acceptable, but in the age of President Trump, many journalists are using anonymous sources to justify seeing anything they wish about anybody. It has become disgraceful weapon to engage unfair attacks on any citizen.
Articles are Too Vague
This is another trademark of Fake News – the content is often way too vague. This indicates that the writer knew very little about the topic. They tend to belabor the major points and state the same things over and over again get the word count up.
There is a general impression that longer articles have more credibility, but if you look closer, you can often find that the writer just keeps rewriting the same 3-4 paragraphs. This means the headline is their major message.
Using Entertainment Celebrities
This has become another disgraceful tactic in politics. They attempt to lend credence to their political message by getting it endorsed by a popular entertain celebrity.
The only problem here is that the celebrity knows nothing about politics. Furthermore, the celebrity is not able to relate in any way to the problems of voters.
The 2016 Presidential Campaign proved without a doubt that celebrities were not successful at all in swaying voters during the election. If anything, they actually hurt the candidates they endorse.
