Fake News and the Future of Journalism (Essay Sample)

Fake News and the Future of Journalism
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Fake News and the Future of Journalism
Every day, people receive news that shapes their lives and influence decisions significantly. In contemporary society, mainstream and social media are pivotal in spreading information. Accuracy and fairness should dominate news media as the guiding principles of good journalism. Guided by these principles, journalists should write accurate information always. Unfortunately, this is not the case since fake news has eroded journalistic integrity. Pablo Boczkowski acknowledges the presence of fake news in contemporary society. Herein, an in-depth exploration of fake news on American society's current informational climate shows its damaging effects.
Besides acknowledging that fake news is part of everyday communication, Pablo Boczkowski is convinced that fake news will negatively impact the future of journalism. The present day’s audience must be convinced to believe various issues, and the persuasion occurs through many diversified tools. Pablo Boczkowski considers three effects as the most damaging to our society. The first element is a broader reach of one’s voice than in the past due to lower access barriers (Wagner & Boczkowski, 2019). Secondly, the ability to detect bias in the media environment has been reduced, considering many media's editorial teams depend on algorithms. The third effect is the cultural authority of knowledge crisis affecting key institutions of modern life besides journalism. In such a state, fake news stories are consumed simultaneously as truthful ones (Wagner & Boczkowski, 2019). With the informational climate spreading fake news and detection ability reducing, Pablo Boczkowski is pessimistic about the near future of journalism, which he considers as a profession losing integrity quickly.
Fake news has damaging consequences on American society. Considering that a significant proportion cannot differentiate between true and fake news, Americans’ worldviews will continue being misshaped. Wang and Huang (2020) explained that people make critical decisions based on information and form ideas about issues based on the information consumed. As a result, Americans will continue making wrong decisions and being shaped wrong due to the increased consumption of false and distorted information. Radwan et al. (2020) further mentioned that fake news damages people’s mental health; it can spread fear and racist ideas that prevent people from interacting smoothly. Bullying and violence against innocent people may stem from fake news. The insults and threats affect mental health adversely.
As fake news continues shaping American society, digital communication tools have been influential in enabling its spread. Martens et al. (2020) described digital communication tools as an enabler of information spread on a large scale and scope. The same infrastructure enables people to create content and reduce reliance on mainstream media outlets. For instance, Facebook leads in facilitating digital communication, allowing previously silent voices to be heard. Unfortunately, information consumption through digital tools increases the probability of consuming fake news. Regulation, due diligence, and fact-checking are minimal via digital tools.
Generally, fake news is part of contemporary information sources