Topic:

Fake News

I. Introduction

𝗔. 𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝘆

The digital age has begun to take the world as we live in the twenty-first century. As time passed, and
this innovation had its own impact on society, disinformation began to spread globally. Fake news is a
major source of concern for all parts of society, including government officials, policymakers,
organizations, businesses, and citizens. By exploiting political, regional, and religious undercurrents, fake
news is deliberately meant to sow a seed of distrust and intensify existing social and cultural dynamics.
Various media outlets are the source of fake news increasing independence in a communicational
manner, has provided a key difficulty from the start: allowing people to dissemination of false
information without oversight has resulted in an information disorder.

Controlling and managing the situation is challenging. These modifications have repercussion that can
be highlighted from two perspectives: referring to democratic societies in terms of trust and not in
terms of power since the high-speed internet, not just in politicians and institutions, but also in media
and journalism, and in terms of digital literacy requirements that have developed from media literacy.

An open information environment has arisen on social media platforms and the Internet where the
primary environment in which information circulates.

Timely relevant in the world's current situation since Covid 19 pandemic spread all over, various
misinformation sites took over the whole world and the main reason why people starts to panicked. This
also gives stress and depression to people as they think that this misleading information is true even
without a basis from credible source.

𝗕. 𝗢𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝘆

1. To determine the reason why fake news is prevalent and what is the source of various misleading
informations.

2. To determine how fake news affects the lives of people and in different parts and sectors of society,
specifically in this time of pandemic and crisis.

𝗖. 𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝘆

1. This study will be significantly of great help for the people in the community, local, national , and
international. Different sectors of the community and parts of society, including government officials,
policymakers, organizations, businesses, and citizens. This study will also help to inform people to be
more aware and be knowledgeable on how to avoid misleading information especially to those people
who have an experience of Covid 19.
𝗗. 𝗟𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄

According to Shu et al. (2017), fake news has a negative influence on individuals and society because it
purposefully persuades consumers to accept erroneous beliefs in order to advance specific objectives.

Organizations and companies face enormous hurdles as a result of the spread of fake news. In fact, fake
news that promotes an untrue position or opinion about a product, brand, or organization can be
purposefully created to deceive consumers (e.g., Potthast et al., 2017)

Fake news has also been shown to have an impact on brands and organizations in recent research (e.g.
Cheng and Chen, 2020; Visentin et al., 2019).

Such incorrect information has the potential to hurt retailers by negatively influencing consumers'
purchasing intentions. Fake reviews, which have been recognized as a kind of internet forgeries, can also
lead to people being deceived into purchasing particular products (Martens and Maalej, 2019).

According to Nielsen et alanalysis the Spanish media released 1,138,364 news items from 1 January
2020 to 7 June 2020, with 90.4 percent of them appearing in March, April, and May. When confronted
with such a deluge of data, citizens are obliged to create filters that allow them to sort through it all and
access to a more manageable volume of content These filters, on the other hand, make them more
susceptible to misinformation.

II. 𝗕𝗼𝗱𝘆

People want knowledge to help them feel better in uncertain times, which can leave them exposed to
incorrect information. Fake news affects different aspects of the society whether it in political,
government, wars, weather, calamities, natural disasters and definitely in times of health crisis.

According to World Health Organization (WHO), acting on incorrect information can result in death. In
confirmity with the new data, approximately 6,000 people were hospitalized around the world in the
first three months of 2020 as a result of coronavirus disinformation. At least 800 people may have
perished as a result of COVID-19 misinformation during this time, base on researches.

At its most extreme, the World Health Organization has coined the term "infodemic," which refers to an
oversupply of information — most accurate, others not — that spreads across a disease outbreak. False
information ranges from denying the threat of COVID-19 to spreading conspiracy theories about
vaccines altering human DNA.
Infodemics aren't new, but they're spreading like wildfire in our digital age. They encourage the spread
of confusion and doubt. Uncertainty breeds skepticism and suspicion, creating the ideal environment for
dread, anxiety, finger-pointing, stigma, violent behavior, and the repudiation of established public-
health policies — all of which can result in death.

In recent study, WHO has teamed up with the UK government to generate and disseminate content to
counteract the spread of disinformation through a series of communication efforts in an attempt to
contain the COVID-19 infodemic. Since the commencement of the COVID-19 outbreak, WHO has made
many steps to address misinformation, both independently and in collaboration with partners.

One big issue about false news, according to a Harvard Kennedy School research, is that it may erode
public trust in democratic institutions. Their researchers looked at this possibility by combining
longitudinal survey data with internet behavior records. Researchers discovered that online
misinformation was connected to a decrease in trust in the mainstream media regardless of political
affiliation. Exposure to fake news, on the other hand, indicated a higher level of trust in political
institutions among moderates and conservatives. The moderate-to-conservative respondents' access to
largely right-leaning fake news may boost their faith in a Republican government. This was not the case
for liberals, who were more likely to be prejudiced towards such information and less inclined to believe
its assertions.

Fake News and Misinformatiom through sites online, social media or livestream media has a big impact
to the society. Various studies already proved that disinformation affects the lives of netizens of
different countries. This also could create chaotic environment and threat to people.

Conclusion:

By analyzing the affects of fake news in health and other sector of society, it was possible to observe
that infodemic can cause a great damage to people. As disinformation continously arises this may lead
psychological disorders and panic, fear, depression, and fatigue. Confusion and doubts will still lingers to
people's mind amd can create a chaotic or difficult situation for societry. If fake news worsen over time,
it will give people to distrust the government. Recent research studies shows the how different
organizatiom cope up to prevent the pread of mileading information. It also show that many people
were affected. Therfore, the researcher conclude that fake news harms the people in the society most
importantly in time of crisis, calamaties amd pandemic.