Reflection Paper

“Spreading Lies and propaganda or Fake News – thus manipulating public opinion through
social media”

Currently, news is the main source of information for the majority and due to the
advancement of technology, people don’t just rely on written newspapers and magazines but
instead they surf the internet or open social media platforms and more. From the news that we
read, we can see and know what is happening in our country and to the other parts of the globe.
The news provides knowledge to the elderly especially the young. It also helps people gain
knowledge and various social media platforms offers variety of information and hot issues that
people can read and talked about which makes them aware of what is happening around them.

The internet is one of the leading sources of information and most people rely on it due to
the fact that various social media platforms offers different news and issues to read and spread
but we cannot also stop the rise of fake news that are circulated around the internet. Fake news is
those news stories that are false; the story itself is fabricated, with no verifiable facts, sources or
quotes. Many are creating based on the opposite of what actually happened or information that
was just invented. Other motives is simply a desire for monetary gain via advertising while in
other cases, the goals can vary from political to spreading fear and making people believe to
falsehood, regardless of its purposes, ultimately it will be based on how much it affects the real
world. At this point of time of pandemic, since people are oblige to stay at home for the safety of
all, many rely on the use of social media as their source of information about the Covid-19 for
which I saw on Facebook about people creating information on how to combat this virus by
using different alternatives as a way to not acquire the virus or a medicine that can cure this
disease. Many said that banana is one of the cure, others said that herbs are while some rely on
superstitious belief which we all know that it will not help us I combating this virus. Through
this spread of false information, many were convince and this shows that people can still be
manipulated without knowing the truth and through this people can further spread more
misinformation that could lead to misunderstandings to conflicts as well as fear to the society.
Moreover, it could influence their views and opinions to certain issues and affect their daily
lives. And if a person likes to share information and news to people, you should be a critical
thinker, you should not be easily convinced by certain news and you would check first the
credibility of the information such as the author, intended audience, its purpose and publisher.
Although we all have the freedom of speech but as a social media user, proper ethical standards
must be observe when sharing and posting facts and information, we should be aware also of
others emotions and respect others online. As of now, governments, companies, and users are
waking up to how serious public opinion manipulation is - as manifested in Fakes News can be.
Steps are taken to debunk stories that are considered to be false and as user we can report those
misinformation as well as imposing regulations and punishing sites that do publish
misinformation.

News has tremendous influence to human life. The news serves as the eyes of the public
to reveal the truth and aware of the things that are happening around us. But when certain lies
and misinformation are circulated around the internet, massive audience can be affected whether
what age you are. In the end, however, it comes down to educated users on how to treat the
information that they are reading and sharing around the different social media platforms. Being
a critical thinker that checks first the credibility of information is one of the best ways to combat
Fake News and avoid the widespread of falsehood. Since our world is fast developing, being an
information and technology literate is one of the ways that will increase the people’s awareness
in sharing true and relevant informational systems and empower readers to stop believing and
sharing lies and fake news to the wider world.