The viral effects of fake news in the digital age and what to do about it

In the 1999 blockbuster hit "The Matrix," Thomas Anderson took the red pill to jump out of the titular universe not because of the charming voice of Morpheus, nor because his daily job sucked. He just wanted to see the truth about his existence, or so he thought. He also believed in a world where he could be Neo, the person who later finds out he can shape the very surface of reality.

Beliefs are powerful and influence perceptions, thus shaping our daily lives and our sense of truth. Beliefs are also major triggering factors on our selection of news resources. Finding a conservative reader who subscribes to an extreme left newspaper is not very common. But in the digital age, where information is out there, free of charge and easy to access, everyone can read, watch or listen to virtually anything. And, most important of all, people also have the ability to share this information with those inside their own social sphere after having analyzed this new piece of information with their beliefs. This is why addressing people's beliefs is so important in the digital age of media, and this is also one of the reasons we have a fake news problem today.


Google, Facebook and Twitter are developing new algorithms to prevent the spread of fake news content.

You do not reach out to information anymore, it reaches out to you!

Looking to the source before the content when reading a news piece is standard procedure nowadays. The reason for this is of course the preponderance of fake news. Just an abstract concept a couple of months ago, fake news has suddenly become troublesome following the U.S. presidential elections and Donald Trump's victory. Interestingly, a report circulated by Hunt Allcott of New York University and Matthew Gentzkow of Stanford, concluded that fake news stories on social media were not a very determining factor in the elections' results. The researchers reported that television remains the go-to place for political news.

People's fear about how such content on the internet is created and spread has risen higher than ever before. To prevent fake news spreading on social media going viral, cutthroat competition is carried out both in technology world and media world. "Fake news resources" such as Google, Facebook and Twitter are developing new algorithms to prevent the spread of such content. Giant media companies that are deemed trustworthy are fighting hard against publication resources that produce fake news. No matter the precautions big companies take, the matter comes down to the reader. In a reality where even tabloid newspapers find their own readers, people reach the news they want to read by using the unlimited access power of the internet. Moreover, they do not hesitate to share news pieces that suit their own notions. The mass that believed everything on television now believes in everything seen on the Internet.

If the problems associated with fake news remained simply about generating misconceptions, the issue would rank among the relatively minor troubles that exist in the cyber world, such as trolls and spoilers. However, the viral effect fake news can have often results in serious consequences in the real world. For example, as a result of the "Pizzagate" news piece that claimed Hillary Clinton and many other politicians were related to a child sex ring that worked through a pizza shop in Washington, a 28-year-old North Carolina man attacked the pizza shop in question.

So, how to avoid being a part of fake news go viral?

First and foremost, you need to understand the type of the content. It might not even be a news story in the first place. There are a myriad of different pieces, including opinions, native ads, reactions, satires and so on. As Tom Rosenstiel of American Press institute puts it: "Knowing what you are looking at is the first step to figure out what you can believe."

After clarifying what you read is a news piece, you need to look for the sources cited and reasons to believe them. Some news pieces might not have a source, like a presidential speech on TV. But if another journalist or "insider" is a source, you should always take it with a grain of salt.

Lastly, in a world where accusation-based reporting outshines evidence-based reporting, it is the readers' duty to look for evidence and fact-check on either a trusted source or online services like Politifact and FactCheck.org.

Unlike the struggle of Neo in The Matrix, fake news might not pose an existential threat to humanity (yet!). But if we let our beliefs solely pull the strings in our perceptions of the truth, and read and share only stories that accord with those beliefs, we might very well trap ourselves in our own blue pill-based world for generations to come.