Never before in history have our communities been so\ninterlinked; the boons and benefits of social media, and the internet as a\nwhole, cannot be understated, for through them information is proliferated in\nways it never has before, and is available now to more people than ever. Such\nrevolutionary developments have their pitfalls, however, and that which is\npopularly being referred to as fake news is blighting the network of\ninformation that these past decades have so carefully crafted. Falsity in\nreporting is hardly a new phenomenon. The problem arises from how easy it now\nis to inject it into the stream of information that flows into the public, and\nhow simple it is to disguise it as credible fact when it is truly nothing but\ndeception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These frustrations require some solution, lest we suffer\nfurther descent of our public by this corruption of our most sacred and\npowerful unifying force: our now nearly limitless capacity to communicate. But\nwhat solution would suffice that could not be called an injustice? What remedy\nis there that exists that would not prompt a vicious outcry, a rally for the\npreservation of that vital, considered even inherent, part of our society: free\nspeech? For in spite of the public fury stirred over falsities and calumnies\nspread through the world like fact, there has likewise been an equally\ninsistent voice deriding the very thought of attempting to censor what others\nmay have to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet there is another facet to this corruption \u2013 it is far\nmore complicated than lies being spread as truth and being difficult to\nrecognize. It is true, much of the public is inclined to believe news at face\nvalue, especially when encountering information that subscribes to the\nworldviews they have adopted. However, these same people also wield the label\nof fake news as a hammer, a weapon with which they seek to strike down that\ninformation that opposes their ideals or beliefs. Fake news is more than an\ninconvenience; quite the opposite, in fact. It serves as an incredibly\nconvenient tool for one seeking to discredit that which does not conform to the\npalette. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This complexity, along with the determined preservation of\nfree speech \u2013 a goal that will perpetually remain noble \u2013 makes the question\nabout what to do about this phenomenon difficult to answer. Regulation is one\nsimple remedy. However, allowing the government to regulate the news is a slope\nfar too slippery to be navigable, and the public would never accept it, such is\ntheir mistrust now of their authority figures. It is this mistrust that would\nlikewise ensure that what facts the government put forth and emphasized as\ntruth would be viewed with even more skepticism. The more an organization seeks\nto convince the world of their veracity, the more doubt they accrue, and the\nmore skeptics they create. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another proposal, if implemented properly, could aid in alleviating the problem, if only marginally. There are, at the moment, independently-operated websites that check facts, confirm the authenticity of statements, and point out glaring errors in reporting. These services are quickly becoming more and more necessary for the preservation of the sanctity and increasingly crippled credibility of our information proliferation. However, they are utilized with far less frequency than they should. The devotion of resources, either privately or through the government, to maintain these websites and bring them to the forefront of our culture, would be one step of many to, rather than regulate speech and communication through the censorship that would create a furious public, establish what information is credible, and what information should be discarded or ignored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Setting limitations on what can be read and viewed in society is a dangerous prospect, given the sanctity of the precepts that have long stood in opposition of just that. So in lieu of such limitations, encouragement to seek the truth and emphasis on identifying what is truly false is perhaps even vital to society. The public needs to quickly understand whether the object of its attention is a deception, or the truth. We have established the communication we require to make our society truly great. Now we must maintain it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Never before in history have our communities been so interlinked; the boons and benefits of social media, and the internet as a whole, cannot be understated, for through them information is proliferated in ways it never has before, and is … Continue reading