Friday, March 25, 2022

Fake News Takes Lives

Europe and North America separated by the vast Atlantic ocean do not help the relay of information accumulating from the already drastic events occurring in Ukraine. As tensions rise across foreign borders, tails of war are being chronically warped to fit agendas of world orders. 


As conflict and despair continue to riddle Europe's eastern borders there is a common outlier of unidentified sources throughout social media and major news corporations.  Even renowned television show Saturday Night Live jokes about the convoluted form of communication of said current events through apps such as Tik Tok and Instagram, however, the line between reality and satirical content seems to have disappeared. But are major news outlets and corporations really to blame? 


According to U.S soldiers alive, despite Russia's fake news’ report, written by Phil Stewart says a recent Russian news source published an extensive article claiming that three current members of the Tennessee national guard were killed in Ukraine and were sent there as US mercenaries. However, the US Military and Tennessee national guard reports deny all of these claims and prove that these three members were never stationed or sent to Ukraine and are all in fact alive and well. These allegations were made in Russia's Pravda newspaper. Phil Stewarts' article states “The National Guard speculated the militia picked the three men while reviewing official imagery associated with a 2018 deployment by Tennessee's 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment to Ukraine, suggesting all three had been in Ukraine.” The constant rotation of distorted claims and allegations like the ones written in the Pravda news article results in the vast and efficient spread of false information and tails.



Where do you find yourself getting most of your information from? 

Considering the distance from the actual conflict, how would we receive valid information about the war? 

Do you think we can do something to stop the spread of fake news? If so, what can we do?


2 comments:

Pascal Nguyen said...

I get most of my news from the Onion, the most trust worthy new source out there. I think anyone in the states should be only using the Onion as it is the most trust worthy and reputable source on the planet. But for those other people who doubt the power of the Onion they can probably rely more on neutral country networks or some of the mainstream news. Just be educated and figure out what is bias and what is fact or not, I hope most people paying attention to the news can figure that out on their own. However like all wars, information is generally very cloudy until the dust settles. I don't think an accurate picture of the war will be out there until one side wins. Even then there will surely be bias in whatever reports are filled in the end. As for stopping fake news I don't think we can. Fake new is a weapon in a sense in this conflict so trying to prevent the use of it is futile.

Katie Lau said...

I find myself initially finding out news from social media (like Instagram), but if I want to find out more about what's happening, I usually go to New York Times.
In general, with fake news, it may cause misunderstandings of situations and therefore cause people to make poor decisions, with much cost.
I think we can't completely stop the spread of fake news, but just continue to teach people to find reliable sources and corroborate sources before jumping to any conclusions or action. With the Onion like Pascal mentioned, people need to understand that it is a satirical site, and shouldn't be taken super seriously.