Unit3, Issue 9

Does Fake News Mislead the Public?

Reading through both Fox and Hollander's controversial opinions, I felt like they both leaned more towards answer "no" to that question, although Fox's answer was "yes". Fox defends her answer through saying that people depend on the media to receive political information and through most recent years, young (teen) people turn to "comedic sources" for their information. She states, "media can fill those voids with second-hand information that is central to construction of social reality" (pg. 176). The young crowd has been turning to late night shows, such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, to feed off of and raise an opinion on political campaigns.

Now Hollander defends his answer through stating that although entertainment programs do inform people, there is no correlation between what is viewed and their political knowledge. He states, "the research here supports the idea that younger people seek out entertainment-based programs to keep up with a political campaign and that watching such programs is more likely to be associated with recognition of campaign information than it is with recall of actual information" (pg. 196).

So in my opinion, although fake news may give out false information in a comic way, it does not mislead the public. People who watch late night shows must understand the concept and comic perception these people are giving. In no way are they speaking to inform the public of real/factual issues affecting the US, but instead to entertain.