Problem of Fake News

The responsibility for media companies is to be constraint for monitoring and preventing the spread of Fake News; but the consumer also has responsibilities of their own. Both the consumer and companies should have the responsibility to make sure the source is credible. You've all seen Fake News, it's been around so long in form of rumors, gossip, and allusion. Fake News is surfacing on most channels, whether on television, Facebook, or online. Many people have trouble on deciding whether news is true or false.

Many people believe that companies have full responsibility to show us whether the sources we read are credible or not, but we tend to forget that it is our responsibility too. We know that Fake news can cause false claims, and that media companies should be able to label the article or text as fake; but consumers can also become educated and double check articles to be aware of Fake news to stay away from it.

The reader has the obligation to make sure the source is credible; but just one problem, when we are in a hurry or feel lazy we rely on the internet too much. When you try to prove someone wrong or get some evidence, you go with the first article you read and forget to do a background check. We do not bother to check whether the website has a text cited page or shows little simple mistakes that can easily be detected, and if the given article youre reading is actually fake. Consumers need to learn not to always rely on the first website you click on.

A lot of information online is made up by companies which leave us the consumers clueless, but they do that just to make money. "Companies let sites that publish fake news make as much money as they can". They take advantage of the consumers, the crazier the story is the more interest it will be for the millions of consumers who cant resist opening. They sell information or hoax it to gain some sort of money. Not only are the companies aware and know what they are putting out, but they benefit from the writing regardless it being real or fake.  "Fake news makes money.

News websites get paid when they have more visits to the stories, and more people visit stories when they are interesting". For example Tom Hanks supporting  Donald Trump was a fake story, in reality he actually was supporting Hillary Clinton. More than 100,000 Facebook users promoted that article. Another example would be the Las Vegas-shooting hoaxes which was promoted by Facebook and Google. Which was not taken down or marked as a hoax, Google posted it under its "top stories" and facebook let the link be shared. According to David Pierson by The Los Angeles Times the social network said "we are working to fix the issue that allowed this to happen in the first place and deeply regret the confusion this caused."

These companies earned money by simply getting everyone's attention and sharing it all over social media. In the article by PBS Newshour/Adapted by NewsELA Staff on December 11, 2016 it was reported that a family in Texas was sick with Ebola. Even though it was not true the story was shared more than 330,000 times.

The website that started it all earned money from all the consumers who clicked on the story. Most consumers rely on the internet for information around the world and believe everything by just one read. The responsibility falls on both the companies and the consumers. Consumers need  to make sure the sources are credible and believable, and Companies need to show us that the information given is proved by hardcore evidence.

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