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Crown Point High School @InklingsCPHS February 28, 2017 Vol. 81 Issue 6
Fact or
Fiction
Read how gymnastics is preparing for the postseason on page 12
Classy couples: Married staff elaborates on relationships
page 9
“Prom cancelled” “CP 2.0 becomes C-3PO”
“CPHS changes mascot to chihuahua”
“Academic assistance guaranteed every Wednesday”
“Chip Pettit wins presidential election”
“Jacob Adams leaves for wilderness”
“Courtyard reopens”
“Amelia Claus leads Quidditch club to international championship”
“Joseph Correa believes climate change is hoax” “Chewbacca to fill Pettit’s principal position”
“Amy Berchem opens French restaurant”
GRAPHIC BY MARIA LEONTARAS
Savvy consumers and media literacy important to distinguish real news as falsehoods circulate BY MARIA LEONTARAS co-editor-in-chief
“Pope Francis shocks world, endorses Donald Trump for president.”
The headline was read around the world, but it was not real. It was fake news. Though the details of its definition may vary, the idea typically remains the same: false information that purposely misleads readers. No matter what one considers fake news, it has become common in the vocabulary of most. But what truly is fake news? Fake news has multiple facets that can misguide audiences of all types according to Indiana University, Bloomington’s High School Journalism Institute Director Teresa White. “Fake news has multiple definitions. I would say that some fake news is literally fabricated. It’s made up information. It’s not factually accurate, so that is one type of fake news,” White said. “Another type of fake news is something that makes it look like news, but it actually might just have the outer appearance of news such as maybe people are sitting at a desk, an anchor desk, delivering stories like a TV news anchor would or stating in front of the camera or microphone delivering news. It has all the appearance or trappings of news, but if you actually look at the hardcore content, it, while it may be accurate, may not be newsworthy content. It’s just packaged like news.”
Research has shown that viewers obtain news from the stand up comedy at the beginning of late night talk shows according to White. She also states that forms of satire, such as the Onion and what used to be the Colbert Report, mislead audiences because they appear to be reliable news sources. But what White believes is the most damaging form of fake news has emerged with the intent of elevated web traffic to make money from advertisers. “The most damaging (form of fake news) ... is the sort of news that’s produced with malicious intent or an intent to deceive with no care to make sure that it is accurate, but it is there to make money for people,” White said. “That’s the type of fake news that came out from this (presidential) campaign. There were actually young people in Macedonia writing completely fake news articles about real people and real events and pushing them out over the internet and passed around through social media because they were clickbait.” Clickbait articles greatly appeal to emotions or prejudices, and their headlines are typically extremely misleading according to White. But fake news can appear in all forms, such as online, on television and on radio. CPTV anchor and senior Reece Grapenthien believes that the notion of fake news is causing a decline in the credibility of all media. “My definition of fake news is something that is not credible. A story that doesn’t have any truth behind it. It may not actually be entirely fake, but it just doesn’t
have any facts supporting it,” Grapenthien said. “Fake news is affecting the media because it is giving less credibility; we saw all the stuff with the election and it really makes the public wonder, ‘Should I even go to this news site anymore?’ It makes them turn elsewhere.” Some, like social studies department chair Jim Ingelhart, believe that fake news has been prominent throughout history. Ingelhart states that its new form is more misleading than its predecessors. “Usually it’s being done by a site publication or group that has some sort of political angle, and usually what they’ll do is try to take a story. It’s what I’d call classic propaganda in which there are some truths woven in there, but usually a lot of false accusations, false conclusions,” Ingelhart said. “What’s more disturbing than most is when you dress it up in a proper journalist form. You’ve got a byline. You’ve got an article. You can cite people then it seems to someone who’s not wanting to read too much into it to think it’s accurate, and the problem is that it also feeds a belief that people want to believe versus what’s actually true.” Ingelhart believes that this type of misleading information has been seen before in the form of yellow journalism, where the press exaggerated and distorted stories in order to sell papers and is now surfacing in the sensationalizing of everyday news. see fake news on page 3
Professor’s guide to
media literacy
from Teresa White
Read more than the headline
“You need to dig into it, click in and read the story. See if it makes sense to you. Try to figure out what you can about the author or the publication or source. See if they have any kind of agenda or any kind of history.”
Think reasonably
“If what is being reported seems really unrealistic (or) outrageous, there’s a good chance that it isn’t true. Somebody is trying to play on your emotions and catch your attention. It’ll seem like it is for one (side) or against another.”
Check grammar and spelling
“Look for simple things such as credibility based on spelling and grammar. A lot of fake news, especially if it’s written by someone who’s in another part of the world that doesn’t speak English very well, may not be edited very well.”
Do research
“Look at the URL of the website. Some of them end in .co. A lot of those have been found to be fake news websites. If you don’t trust it yourself, then don’t spread it. ... But if you think it’s possible that this may be true, search the internet for stories about the same topic. If you can find multiple sources that are reporting the same thing, it’ll be most likely true.”