Personal Responsibility and Fake News
- Personal Responsibility/Self-awareness:
Fake news is not a new phenomenon, but it has gained a lot of attention recently due to the innovation of modern technologies as well as social media sites. It has become easy for fake news to be presented to the audiences as the unbiased, factual truth (Jardine, 4). Things like clickbait headlines as well as subjective journalism have provided a platform for fake news even to become more prominent. The spread of fake news is a large social media platforms issues. These platforms are some of the greatest propagate of fake news, without even becoming actual news outlets.
- Identification of the Issue/Clarification and Connections:
Fake news is only unethical when it is expected to be read as a real one, and so there is a deceiving intention. Fake news is only unethical when it is scheduled to be construed as a real one, and so there is a deceiving intention (Stover, 286). Fake news usually seeks to intentionally spread misinformation, either in the form of entertainment or to seek a political or social gain. For example, the Onion writes fake news all the time. This isn’t as ethically corrupt as sites that use misinformation to push a false narrative, because satirical news sees people who believe in what they put out as idiots anyways. However, it does spread misinformation.
- Response/Conclusion
Mainstream journalists regularly trade access for favourable treatment, effective writing what amounts to a press release to secure a relationship that enhances their personal marketability within the ‘industry’. Mainstream media protect the powerful, speaking power to the powerless (Burkhardt, 29). Elite journalists are married and related to elites in the political class, making enormous political contributions to their patrons. They don’t even make a pretence at hiding their partisan agenda while enjoying constitution protections premised on the existence of a free press.