Fake News Times

This is an era of information explosion, and this is also an era of mixed information. As the media credibility is constantly challenged by "fake news", the boundary between fact and fiction is becoming more and more blurred, and the society seems to have entered into the "post-truth" era. In the face of the crisis and challenge of the "post-truth" era, only by developing a good ability to distinguish right from wrong can we find the path to truth.

Learning to identify the "fake" news that is untrustworthy among many newscasts is the most basic and important step to develop good media literacy. The so-called "fake news" refers to the fake news with careless means and the lowest level of the media profession. Its main characteristics can be summarized as missing news elements and suspicious information sources.

At first glance, it might seem easy to spot this kind of fake news, even people with no concept of media literacy can identify that something is wrong. However, while most of us feel good about ourselves in recognizing this issue, we still find that most of our friends or relatives are immersed and affected by various fake news.

One of the reasons that people are constantly influenced by fake news is because of the overall volume of fake news. According to The Many Faces of Lies written by Bella DePaulo, “the 147 participants had recorded a total of 1,535 lies in their diaries: two lies per day for the college students, or one lie in every three of their social interactions; and one lie per day for the people in the community, or one lie in every five of their social interactions”. Lies and fake news are becoming prevalent in social media, but we still need to refuse to believe and compromise what is untrue.

Therefore, we must have the ability to see through the rumors and not blindly believe others.