With social media expanding and growing rapidly, it has allowed for the media to pick up on numerous different headlines and leads, allowing for fake information to easily slip out and be reported as real news.  

Fake news is the deliberate publishing of hoaxes, propaganda and other faulty information that is set out to be real news. While most frequently found on social media, fake news is becoming increasingly common across numerous different online platforms. Fake news is unprofessional and deceptive, as it is purposely intended to be misleading and further can be written by literally anyone with access to the internet.

 Fake news during the time of the election had been very prominent, as well as politics in general at the time, as the media was trying to get their hands on any little story/lead that could be breaking news or be of valuable information. According to PBS, “Buzzfeed reporter Craig Silverman and his colleagues… found more than 100 fake news sites focused on the U.S. election were being run out of a small town in the Balkan nation of Macedonia and that virtually all were publishing articles favorable for President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign.” This shows that fake news is deceptive, as numerous different fake news websites published fake information regarding the election, and had further  pointed towards Trump winning the election. Additionally, if the media had grabbed a hold of any of these stories and one of them had gotten reported as real news, it could potentially sway the public’s opinion towards voting for Trump, based off of the faulty information in the misleading articles. This false information usually contains information that glamorizes Trump and makes Hillary look evil. Furthermore, the people who didn’t know that the information they were receiving was fake, were  likely more prone to vote for someone who has this better more glamorized figure, than one who is portrayed as this terrible person.

Most surprising of all there is quite a big populous of teens involved in fake news. These thousand dollar liars are making big bucks, as if they had a top tier job.  According to NBC “Dimitri — who asked for his name not to be disclosed — is one of dozens of teenagers who got rich during the U.S. presidential election producing fake news for millions on social media. Dimitri says he’s earned at least $60,000 in the past six months. This goes to show that anyone can write up a fake news story and it further doesn’t matter what your credentials are at all.

Fake news can have an impact on students on campus, as say if a story had gotten out about multiple students cheating on a test. Furthermore, it was all fake and made up by a student that hated the students that he accused them of cheating. This could cause the students who were accused of cheating to unrightfully face repercussions for something that they hadn’t even done, all because of faulty information.  

With fake news spreading so rapidly as it has been, it goes to show how powerful words truly are.