Persuasive Writing Assignment (Research Paper Sample)

CMST 240 – Media Literacy Persuasive Writing Assignment Institutional Affiliations Instructor Date Fake News has become an anchor for Racism and Xenophobia Introduction Political polarization, racism, cyber threats and on xenophobia have been on the increase in the age of the internet and social media. Misinformation, disinformation and malinformation are the result of such increased vices at the turn of the century. Fake news are dangerous, damaging and at the same time malicious. The disorder of information is called fake news and it makes the truth a hard thing to find and identify with. At the worst case scenario, fake news threatens social and personal security endangering the minority groups even the more. Fake news are false narratives published and advanced as true (CHAMPA, 2021). These narratives are created and disseminated with the aim of altering or influencing peoples’ perceptions, beliefs and attitudes sin order to ultimately alter their behavior and their view on a certain area. In the current news world, online consumers are still being confronted with a great task which is almost impossible for them and that is to cut off the effects of fake news without being unfair to the right of free speech. Fake news takes the form of conventional news media in its output but lacking in process and intent. It lacks the processes of weeding out the untrue favor and editorial norms. Its effects are quite exercabating and its extreme is racism and xenophobia. In the age of the internet, fake news are becoming the norm creating an environment where anybody is able to publish and sell their agenda no matter how it could be and understanding the nuances of this vice is not an option since its important in helping to mitigate its harmful impacts in tandem with racism and xenophobia at its extreme. The Problem and its Impacts From a general stance, the rapid spread of fake news online has had profound consequences inclusive of distrust for the media, undermining of political processes, political polarization, it is a platform for harmful hate speech and conspiracy theories as well as the spread of false science. At its best, fake news has been the reason for many lives claimed through xenophobia. Following a number of psychological and economic qualities which are intrinsically connected to the dissemination of online information, fake news is a powerful tool in shaping public opinion at a sensationalist rhetoric level. Most of the fake new stories have been confined to political spaces with utter fabrications which have impacted racial and ethnic groups whose identities could be wrapped on the increased political polarization. Systematic racism is a system of racial prejudice practices where there is inequality with predominance of white rule. Black people have been discriminated and police are more likely to use excessive force on the blacks. These discriminatory acts take mental and physical tolls on victims. A lot of articles today which contain misinformation or fake news are geared towards invoking negative portrayal of blacks, for instance President Obama (Ramasubramanian & Martinez, 2016). This particular article contained fake news aimed at portraying Obama as someone who was struggling to maintain his popularity through TV shows. Such negative stereotypes have been shown to give out racist beliefs. News stations used implicit cues on racial basis to report Hurricane Katrina which indicated that black residents were responsible for violence (Sonnett et.al, 201). Media has often portrayed African Americans as criminals and people who are always unmotivated. Blacks who ascend in power today are held on low profiles and scrutinized by media. Such stereotyping happens through conventional and social media with a political goal to sway the political opinions of Americans. Such misinformation or fake news have impacted socioeconomic status, education and even has gone as far as causing chaos in countries such as South Africa leading to deaths. Since fake news carry with them the effect of influencing attitudes and beliefs, they inform the behavior of whites against blacks which has been gone as far as protests on ‘black lives matter’ after a black civilian died in the hands of police in the U.S. The longer these fake news are absorbed and digested by individuals, the more exercabated its effects become ingrained in the brain creating difficult tasks for individuals to change. This leads to the long term stereotyping on blacks and constant issues related to xenophobia. Possible Causes Fake news or misinformation is an issue that has gotten out of hand with its main cause being that it is information which mimics traces of the original information but altered to reflect and suit a certain political or social agenda. It is meant to misinform individuals in regard to a specific situation in order to dupe them into believing the evil narrative. The reason why it is getting out of hand is that today fake news on racial biasness have become networked within societies, universe and social media organizations (Shimizu, 2020). Fake news is also becoming a threat because Facebook which is highly accessed has seen a huge influx of fake news within the last several years. Increased demand to win over political opponents has led to hate speech and anti-racism posts on social media as well as even print. These headlines which stereotype others on basis of gender, race, sexual orientation, color, language and ethnicity have led to the emergence of populist movements and overtly anti-migrant political parties. Another cause is that some individuals who feed on fake news tend to feel motivated since some of these news contain elements which match their preconceived beliefs. Visual elements which are availed through these fake news tend to make the false information more successful Proposed institutional Solutions In the current new...