The Circulation Of Fake News In Election Campaigns: A Case Study Of US 2016 Elections

Fake News during USA 2016 election

Discuss about the Circulation Of Fake News In Election Campaigns.

Fake news websites are generally hoax that pretends to be legitimate. These websites are known for spreading rumours among public for seeking false interest. Fake news articles are one that are intentionally and verbally wrong in nature. The main purpose of the article is to mislead the readers. The case study focus on the news articles having political implication in US 2016 Elections.  The case regarding the FBI agent suspected in Hilary email leaks found dead in apparent murder-suicide. The report focus on origination of satirical website produced during the elections.  The defunct website wtoe5news.com stated that Pope Francis has endorsed Donald Trump’s Presidency during the election. Most of the articles were satirical in nature but shared million times on Facebook.  There were certain websites that were developed purely for fun during the election (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017).  

 Fake news article originates on several websites. Some of the website is developed to spread the fake news among people. These sites are named exactly like the original websites in order to fool the readers. The 2016 US election has provided with an endless incidences that focus on the fake news. US company Disinfomedia owns many fake news sites. It includes NationalReport.net, USAToday.com.co, and WashingtonPost.com.co. Paul Horner, a USA based producer ran a winning fake news site called National Report for years. During the 2016 election, the producer published news supporting Trump (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010).  This came out to be main  reason for supporting fake news.  The reason behind running the fake news is pecuniary. The purpose is to draw attention of the readers towards the news to go viral on social media. This has significantly helped in drawing significant advertising revenue. This came out to be one of the main reasons behind the motivation for most of the producers. The teenagers in Veles, produced stories favouring both Trump and Clinton helped then in earning ten thousand of dollars. Paul Horner produced pro-Trump stories for gaining profit claiming to be individually opposed to Trump (Borden & Tew, 2007) .The other reason for spreading the motivation.  These fake news providers look for advancing favour to their favourite candidate.  There are few who started the fake news website to help Donald Trump’s campaign. Additional providers of right-wing fake news in fact say they recognize as left-wing and sought after to humiliate those on the right by naively circulating the false stories (Brewer & Marquardt, 2007).

Theoretical concept of fake news and its implication on influencing people during the election

There are two possible unobserved slates of the world that most probably represents the candidates on the right and left side. Media channels do get the signal for publishing news. They publish the news after checking on the facts.  Each and every media house has a reporting strategy to publish the news. They have an option either to publish the correct news or to issue one with bias (McBeth & Clemons, 2011).  Consumers do receive utility through the news; firstly they want to know the actual news and secondly they are looking for the psychological utility.  Consumers do choose the news that serves their maximum utility.  Producers of the fake news are the organization with two distinguishing characteristics.  They do not make any such investment in accurate report. Moreover they are not concerned with the market reputation. The purpose is to generate maximum number of click on the news headlines to generate more views. This fake news has a potential to add certain level of social cost (Brewer, Young & Morreale, 2013). Consumers have become more sceptical of legitimate news producers. It has become difficult for the consumers to distinguish in between the fake and real news.  These factors do have a potential to reinforced equilibrium by supply-side responses. In case of a reduced demand for high-precision, low-bias reporting will reduce the incentives. All these negative effects of the trade off against any welfare gain have a high impact on consumers who enjoy reading fake news. This forms to be an important part in managing the news (Walgrave, Lefevere & Nuytemans, 2009).  The theoretical concept related to the fake news and its implication in influencing People during the election. The fake news is circulated through the online channels. These channels are having a long lasting impact on the mind of the voter. There are certain instances where the reader is unable to distinguish in between the real and the fake news.  Social media channels do have a long lasting impact/ Most of the news that arrives through these platforms does not contain any amount of evidence.  The social media   channels are being used as a tool to spread the fake news (Reilly, 2012).   Majority of social media platform is used to spread fake news. There is no proper source cited while publishing news.  There is no proper link that provide with authentication of the news that is available on the website. In bringing a change it is important to understand the changes that can affect the election. It has a long-lasting impression on the mind of the readers. The news is gathered with an intention to attract reading. For the purpose of generating fake interest in people, the news channel is creating wide interest by generating interest (Bennett, 2016).

Conclusion

It was reported during the US elections that there were 100 of fake Facebook accounts that are operated from US.  These accounts were intended to create fake among people. The USA election has created a wide spread impression in the mind of people by running fake news throughout the day.  The fake news ads are detected is relatively small. It is due to the external influencing factors in order to manage the excess pressure that is created due to the external interference.  The important factor is related to the coordination in between the various factors that have a long lasting impact in the mind of the readers. This is important from the point of view of removing the long-term impact on the mind of the people. It is important from the point of view of developing better opportunities in order to deal with the factors that has been influencing the different factors.  There are majority of fake news factories that has been influencing the election in many ways. It is through these news channels that the interest of people is been getting influenced. The factors are affecting the votes of people during the election. The interest of people largely depends upon the individual interest during the process of election.  Google has admitted the circulation of such news that is affecting the election and interest of people.  The search giant has found the people for managing the interest of parties in the election.  Fake news has a long lasting impact on the mind of people. It is though the websites that the news channel is circulating fake news in order to influence interest of people. This has significantly helped in drawing significant advertising revenue. This came out to be one of the main reasons behind the motivation for most of the producers.  One of the reasons behind the issue is due to the ineffective process that is attached with the election (Metaxas & Mustafaraj, 2012).

Conclusion

At many times, there is fake news regarding any incidence during election campaign. Most of the news is circulated comes from a place that has certain level of interest. This is common in each and every country.  Not just in USA, but there are other countries as well that see such incidences, this do affect the people with littler information about the incidence.  Such incidences can only be reduced if general awareness is created. This will help in creating awareness about the right news. Such websites need to be checked timely. This will help in gaining long-term interest of the political party in managing election.  This is however important for generating awareness in order to reduce the ill-effect of such incidences. They do not make any such investment in accurate report. Moreover they are not concerned with the market reputation. The purpose is to generate maximum number of click on the news headlines to generate more views. This fake news has a potential to add certain level of social cost.  Countries are taking strict measure to control such incidences and therefore urging people to be smart enough while going through news. It is important from the point of view of reducing the aftermath of such incidences. However, it is necessary to provide support to different incidences in order to gain long term interest of people and the political party associated.

References

Allcott, H., & Gentzkow, M. (2017). Social media and fake news in the 2016 election (No. w23089). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Bennett, W. L. (2016). News: The politics of illusion. University of Chicago Press.

Borden, S. L., & Tew, C. (2007). The role of journalist and the performance of journalism: Ethical lessons from “fake” news (seriously). Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 22(4), 300-314.

Brewer, P. R., & Marquardt, E. (2007). Mock news and democracy: analyzing The Daily Show. Atlantic Journal of Communication, 15(4), 249-267.

Brewer, P. R., Young, D. G., & Morreale, M. (2013). The impact of real news about “fake news”: Intertextual processes and political satire. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 25(3), 323-343.

Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business horizons, 53(1), 59-68.

McBeth, M. K., & Clemons, R. S. (2011). Is Fake News the Real News?. The Stewart/Colbert Effect: Essays on the Real Impacts of Fake News. Ed. Amarnath Amarasingam. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

Metaxas, P. T., & Mustafaraj, E. (2012). Social media and the elections. Science, 338(6106), 472-473.

Reilly, I. (2012). Satirical fake news and/as American political discourse. The Journal of American Culture, 35(3), 258-275.

Walgrave, S., Lefevere, J., & Nuytemans, M. (2009). Issue ownership stability and change: How political parties claim and maintain issues through media appearances. Political Communication, 26(2), 153-172.