Questioning the media's credibility is not a new concept. Ethnic tensions have increased, wars have intensified, and elections have been swung due to false information. According to "Unnoteworthy News" by The New American's James Murphy, the major media has itself to blame for the term "fake news." And Murphy says that fake news is simply as old as man himself, a parallel to the serpent lying to Eve in the Bible.

 

During the Revolutionary War in 1782, Ben Franklin used a makeshift printing press to manufacture a completely false edition of the Independent Chronicle, a Boston, Mass. newspaper. The headline included fake details about 700 New Yorkers being scalped by a group of Indians in cohorts with the King of England. Franklin then sent copies to his press colleagues in Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. Murphy says it didn't have any war-related repercussions, however, it could have influenced U.S. citizens' perception of the natives.

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The New York Journal v. the New York World

 

The yellow journalism controversy between Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst could have intensified the Spanish-American War in 1898, according to Craig Carey's research in American Periodicals.

 

The term "yellow journalism" was named after the yellow ink newspapers, like the New York Journal and the New York World, sometimes used. Pulitzer owned the World in the late 1800s and filled it with colorful pictures, contests, and games to attract readers. Hearst, who saw potential in what Pulitzer was doing, purchased the New York Journal in 1895. What followed was a battle of sensational journalism and eventually, incorrect accounts during the Spanish-American War in 1898.

 

Each publication exaggerated conditions in Cuba, created inaccurate illustrations, and misinterpreted coding signals from media correspondents abroad. The USS Maine explosion, an American ship destroyed in Havana, also contributed to yellow journalism. The Spanish denied the Journal and the World access to the wreck, which Carey says broke the news into just the kind of data that this new journalism sought to capture, manipulate, and mark up for circulation. It's unclear why the ship mysteriously exploded, however, correspondents from the two papers blamed Spain [see below].

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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So if "fake news" isn't new, why aren't we focused on changing it? And why are we so concerned?

 

Hillary Clinton blamed her election loss on it, President Donald Trump accuses mainstream media of publishing it, and we, as Internet users, subject ourselves daily to it, James Murphy says.

 

Websites like Facebook and Google have recently created algorithms to combat clickbait headlines and misleading information. IEEE, the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers, started research to create a standard for the process of identifying and rating the trustworthiness of news sources.

 

Some action IS being taken to help readers decipher between reputable and false news, but what about first educating people on the WAY they approach news? The way they examine the honesty of the source, question its independence and gauge its productivity. (Pike 10)

 

Let's talk about media literacy.