Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Fake News

Real news, fake news, what's the difference?


In the articles we had to read, it said that, "research has shown that between 48 and 60 percent of young adults watched fake news shows to get information about the 2004 American presidential campaign." And "reseachers from Ohio State University found television viewers who watch fake news programs are less informed about issues and candidates in election campaigns than those who watch network news shows." The article also said that, "Young Mie Kim, co-author of the study and assistant professor of communication at Ohio State, said both newsand entertainment promote some knowledge gain, but people who are exposed to news gain more factual information and learn more about a wide ranges of important media."


If you ask me, I say any news is better than no news at all. It may be true that people who watch entertainment news may not be as influential, but i think that it is still very informative. It's not like the information that are given are really fake.


First of all, if people really cared about the news and wanted the whole download, they would watch the real news. People want to watch entertainment news for a reason, whatever it may be. As for myself I watch entertainment news because sometimes I don't want to know every little detail about the world. To be honest I get very depress to know all the bad and wrong things that goes on in this world. I try to stay away from the news as much as possible. When I do want to know something, I go online and read about it, or I watch entertaiment news where the news is given short and simple. And ontop of all that, it is funny and I am being entertained.





On the other hand, there are people who may argue and say that the only reason why they watch entertainment news is because they don't have time to watch the real news shows, or they don't get the channels that the news are on. I say BS! There are more than one way to get the real news if you really wanted to get the real news. There is such thing call the internet and google! There are many websites that people can go on to get real news without a TV. For an example, there is New York Times. com, it has all the latest news! If you dont' have a computer or internet, there is a library! And if that seems like too much work, there is always the actual newpaper.

As for yound kids today, I say it's good to encourage them to watch the news so that they are informed about the things going on around them. But we as educators can only push so much, in the end it is still up to the students whether they way to or not. A lot of young kids don't watch the news because it is boring and who would want to watch a boring TV show when they could be doing something more fun. One way educators can do to get these kids to watch the news is to have it on during class. I remember in 7th grade, my history teacher would have all the students watch 10-15 minutes of news at the beginning of every class period! That was how I got all my news and I didn't even have to take time out of my spear time to do it. Another way to get students to watch the news is to quiz them on it. Every Friday my 8th grade teacher would have a news triva day. The class is broken up into groups and the teacher asks us a bunch of questions that he got from newspapers or the news channel. Everyone gets points for the questions they got right and whoever gets the most points get bonus points for their grade, or a prize. I never really cared for the news, but getting those extra points sure made me want to pay attetion to the new!

Overall, I think it is important that we watch the news and get informed on what's going on around us. But that is not always going to happen. I think people should just be glad that there are entertainment news out there that even keeps some people like me informed about this world. People need to relax and not care so much!

4 comments:

  1. In my 11th grade U.S. History class we would have regular Friday news trivia games. At first it was one side of the room against the other. Then it devolved into class versus me! When I still answered most of the questions right I got promoted to score keeper. Funny now, sort of fun then, but I still wonder what my class mates were doing while I was listening to Public Radio (and getting many answers!).

    Trivia seems like a potentially fun-like way with a reward motivation for highlighting current events. Would you use it as a teacher?

    Good points on the variety of ways to get the news. Thanks for your thoughts.

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  2. Hey "Blog Buddy,"

    Nice work on the blog post. I agree with Marie in that trivia seems like a great way to engage students with current events--also, I was impressed with the "variety of ways to get the news," as she says. I think one of the key things to remember is that the line is fuzzy between what is real, legitimate news and what qualifies as fake news. What about Access Hollywood? Entertainment Tonight? You may assume that they would be fake news, but what about when they interviewed Obama on the campaign trail. As the media infiltration of our world continues, the gray area will grow. For that reason, I agree that relaxing and going with the flow may be smart ways to interact in this situation!

    Rebecca Oberg

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  3. I like your notion that any news is better than no news. But what about people like Rush Limbaugh who put forth blatant lies to his masses (e.g. Obama is Muslim--side note by me, who cares if he is anyway). I think his fake news is dangerous and not better than no news. But your point is well taken. Generally I would agree :)!

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  4. Houa- nice blog post for the week! I also like the idea that any news is better than no news, but what if that news that is being projected is fake and influencing those who don't understand that it is fake? I agree that entertainment news is another good news source, but I think that it should be supplemented with what is actually going on. Take Perezhilton.com for instance: Not only does he include all the gossip about celebrities, but he also keeps his readers up to date with current events and important (inter)national news as well!

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