Leo Avallone

Michel

Comm 101

31 October 2023

Misinformation: Awake to the Fake

1. Identifying the Exigence/Problem

Within this web page project, I hope to be able to address the growing amount of fake

news and misinformation being spread to the public. As the internet has continued to grow

throughout its history, including the accessibility of it, the impact that it can and does have on

individuals as well as communities has only gotten stronger and stronger. While this is not an

inherently bad trait, and can even arguably be a great thing, it becomes a problem when news

that isn’t true begins to spread. With more of an audience at its hand, fake news gains an

increasing amount of both attention and power, as it can influence those who believe it and their

behaviors—which could potentially lead to larger divides amongst people and even violence.

2. Identifying the Purpose

With the creation of my website, I hope that readers will not only become more aware of

what fake news is and how prominent it has become in today’s world, but also learn what it

means to do their own research and fact-checking information that they find on the internet and

even from people they know. While I am unsure that readers will be able to do anything to

change the issue of fake news and misinformation on the internet, my biggest goal is to at least

raise awareness for the problem and hopefully inspire others to being more accurate with

information that they learn about and choose to spread, rather than spreading misinformation,
even unintentionally. In the best case scenario, I hope that my (planned) research and

well-organized and easy-to-follow website design help to get my message across to readers and

incite action from them.

3. Identifying the Intended Audience

With this website, my intended audience is honestly anyone who uses the internet. As

fake news and misinformation can be posted basically anywhere at any time on the internet, it is

important to all users of it to be cautious when it comes to believing things that are read, heard,

or seen online. Additionally, fake news/misinformation can come in an unlimited number of

forms and can be specifically designed towards different groups of people, so it is important for

everyone to recognize the fact that quite literally anything could be fake news. This especially

applies to older audiences, as they can more easily relay the lessons about misinformation to

younger people around them, as my website will not necessarily be catered towards younger

audiences, at least when it comes to the information and language that I will directly be using.

4. Developing Website Content

I hope to be able to use easy to understand yet informative language within my website,

to avoid making it too difficult to understand my message and thus defeating the whole purpose

of this project. With clear and concise language, I will be able to effectively and efficiently

communicate my message about the importance of media literacy through the perspective of

avoiding fake news and misinformation, thus leading to the loss of power that fake news holds

over people and the internet. Additionally, I hope to be able to use images that both emphasize

my message as well as give examples of fake news that don’t necessarily look fake, as a way to

make it clear to the audience that something doesn’t have to look fake for it to be fake, and

things that look real are not always real either.

 a. Written Language

As the Internet and technology as a whole continue to develop and grow with new

capabilities and features, as depicted in any Sci-Fi dystopia movie, new forms of danger

can arise from these shiny, new machines. Now, while the dangers in real life may not be

as dramatic as robots seeking to annihilate humanity from the face of the planet, the idea

remains the same. Although the Internet provides us nearly instantaneous access to news

and information, it also creates an endless possibility for fake information to be spread to

the masses as a byproduct. And, as most of the education department is well aware of, AI,

or artificial intelligence, has become a significant issue when it comes to the production,

believability, and accessibility of fake news and misinformation to the public. This

becomes especially true when AI is able to generate fake but hyperrealistic videos or

images of well-known people, largely when these falsely-generated personalities happen

to be politicians, which can largely impact voting patterns and thus the wellbeing of

countries and, more importantly, the people that live in them.

b. Images
5. Visual Website Content Map