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Seattle Shakur
Professor Silver
Intermediate Writing
9 February 2017

Mapping Politics and Fake News

Since the time when humans began to communicate with each other, fake news has been

alive and circulating. There is even documentation of fake news spreading during the Greek

philosopher Platos era (Lemann). Because of this fact, it may be hard to see why, in recent

months, fake news has been all over the media and regarded as an enormous, relatively new

issue. Many academic writers and journalists have written about false reporting since the start of

the 2016 United States presidential election. The articles share a common ground when it comes

to stating how fake news largely influences peoples political views, and why it has such a huge

impact on peoples thoughts and opinions. They also come up with common solutions to help

lessen the effects of fake news on the people who read it. The map I created shows the ways that

these articles connect and also the unique viewpoints each one brings to the table.

The first section that the articles discussed was the impact that fake news has on politics.

One article, titled Solving the Problem of Fake News, tells the readers that a larger percent of

fake news is produced closer to election time (Lemann). To support this, Disinformation in the

Media: the Case of Russia and Ukraine, says in Russia and Ukraine there are people who are

hired to be internet trolls. They are paid to write and spread propaganda on the internet, usually

posting comments that support Vladimir Putin (Mejias and Vokuev). This makes people who

frequent social media sites become bombarded with these false facts. So much so that they either

start to believe what they read or they start to distrust what is posted on their social media page.

From this, the writer of Stop the Invasion of Fake News says the internet plays a bigger role in

politics than the politicians themselves (National Catholic Reporter). When people who are apart
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of the Republican Party see posts online about fake Democratic scandals, it will persuade them to

trust Republicans more because they believe the information to be true. Same happens vice

versa. These people are putting their trust in a political system based off of the lies they read

online. It does not help that the president, Donald Trump, is helping to spread those lies and is

taking his supporters along for the ride (Benen).

The second topic that the articles touched on was how people are exposed to fake news.

The article, When Fake News Becomes Real, states that people are attracted to the humor of fake

news and are more likely to read it. Along those same lines, people who frequently watch hard

news, accurate stories, are less likely to believe the fake news that they read (Balmas). Solving

the Problem of Fake News supports Balmas by stating that people find fake news more exciting,

therefore, become greatly invested in the story and start to believe what they read.

The last connection found in the articles was a similar proposal on how we can stop

people from believing these false new articles. Stop the Invasion of Fake News says the U.S.

Government, or any government for that matter, should not get involved in an attempt to filter

and control news. Instead, the people who are exposed to fake news should be educated on how

to tell the difference from a fake news article and a real one. One should always question what

they read and fact check to make sure what they say is true (National Catholic Reporter). It is

likely that the more accredited news sources, like Fox, CNN, and MSNBC, write about a event,

the more likely it is to be true.

Each article is similar in the ways they explain how fake news affects people's attitudes

towards politics. Their proposals all give the same ways on how to solve this new

phenomenon, which is educating the readers on fact checking and not believing everything they
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read. The map that was drawn gives a visual representation of what is written here, but in a more

concise format.
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Works Cited

Balmas, Meital. "When Fake News Becomes Real: Combined Exposure to Multiple News

Sources and Political Attitudes of Inefficacy, Alienation, and Cynicism."

Communication Research, 2014. Accessed 9 February 2017.

Benen, Steve. "Trump Honors Black History Month in a very Trump-like way." MSNBC, 1

February 2017. Accessed 9 February 2017.

Lemann, Nicholas. "Solving the Problem of Fake News." The New Yorker, 30 November 2016.

Accessed 9 February 2017.

Mejias and Vokuev. "Disinformation in the Media: The Case of Russia and Ukraine." Media,

Society, and Culture, 2017. Accessed 9 February 2017.

National Catholic Reporter. "Editorial: We have to Choose to Stop the Invasion of Fake News."

National Catholic Reporter, 30 December 2016. Accessed 9 February 2017.