Fake news is defined as news items that are deliberately and indubitably untrue with the aim of distorting public views of facts, events, and assertions. It concerns news that is promoted but that the promoter knows to be false because it is based on clearly inaccurate facts, unverifiable assertions, or untrue occurrences. Therefore, the logic of the argument will be weakened by fallacies, which are frequent errors in reasoning. Fallacies can be irrelevant or illegitimate arguments, frequently recognized by the absence of evidence to support their claims.
Analysis
In recent times, fake news has become prevalent, making it ever more challenging to discern the truth of an announcement. The common understanding is that fake news appears to be real news, but it is not. Even though there may be some gaps between documented facts and truth, fake news is considered news that seeks to hoodwink at least a segment of the audience. Duffy et al. state that 59% of fake news contains neither fabricated nor imposter information but constitutes reconfigured misinformation that includes manipulated content (10), misleading context, and misleading content. Identifying specific categories of misleading information is a subject of debate. However, we must be aware of many kinds of fake or deceptive news when assessing online stuff.
Evaluation
Today, people predominantly rely on different kinds of media to understand happenings across various parts of the world daily. The same media is used to spread and propagate fake news. In particular, the evolution of digital media has made it arduous to specify an author’s deliberate action to mislead others. For example, any information spread through Facebook is tightly coupled with filter protrusions. Still, the sociability of online users plays a critical role in circulating fake news (Duffy et al. 5). Additionally, traditional newsrooms have employed skilled and experienced actors who take time to deliberate on the process of news construction. However, the editors may modify the original title of a news article to make it more ”clickable” and boost its visibility over important information. As a result, the alteration may well result in unintended, misleading information.
There has yet to be an agreed-upon method for recognizing and categorizing various types of disinformation. This flaw also has to be explained in light of the circumstances, making it more critical than ever to recognize fallacies when determining the truthfulness of a claim. According to Duffy et al., a fallacy is a belief or claim based on flawed reasFallacies must be avoided (3). To make a lot be avoided since they are intended to undermine the argument. Ad hominem attacks, appeals to ignorance and authority, bandwagon fallacies, false dilemmas, red herrings, hasty generalizations, and slippery slope arguments are a few of the frequent varieties (Duffy et al. 2). Even though new ones appear every day, there are many different types of fallacies. However, several fallacies that are immediately recognizable are frequently employed.
Ad hominem fallacies focus on the person being attacked rather than the significant point of the argument. A claim that something is accurate simply because there is no opposition or the claim has not been refuted is known as an appeal to ignorance. An allegation that uses the advice of a respected individual as justification for it is called an “appeal to authority” and is false. Bandwagon fallacy results from a claim professed to be true because many others believe it. False dilemma fallacies appear as a statement offering no more than two ops. There are more than tare two options available. The red herring fallacy is used when a claim is made based on unimportant information to divert attention from the primary point of the conversation (Duffy et al. 12). When a statement is primarily based on hypotheses that have not been sufficiently supported by evidence, it is considered hasty generalization. Typically, it results in the development of stereotypes. The slippery slope fallacy is founded on the idea that a small action could result in an extreme result that might not be possible to control in the middle.
An instance of a piece containing errors appeared during the coronavirus pandemic when people were worried about their health. Based on SkyNews, a report titled “Cancer Cases Surge Amid COVID-19 Lockdowns” was published in Australia. It is immediately apparent that the statement from the news contains a fallacy known as the hasty generalization. When the article was released on August 13, 2020, insufficient research was done to conclude that COVID-19 lockdowns were to blame for the rise in cancer cases ((Duffy et al. 13)). The article’s first sentence states, “Hundreds of Australians are in danger of cancer and other major ailments because many have been delaying seeking medical attention due to fear of COVID-19 and the current lockdowns.” The claim incorporates the bandwagon fallacy since it assumes that most people believe it is true.
According to the report, Chief Medical Officer of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre David Speakman predicted that “a wave of cancer diagnoses and many other medical issues that were overlooked or neglected due to the COVID-19 epidemic” will likely occur. (“Cancer Cases Surge Amid COVID-19 Lockdowns” 12). The article includes a Chief Medical Officer’s opinion, which presents a fallacy based on the use of authority. The fact that the officer offers an opinion to back up the news helps to make his testimony credible. The assertions made in the paper were unreasonable since there was no proof that the COVID-19 lockout contributed to the rise in cancer cases. It attempts to convince the audience that COVID-19 is at fault for the increase in cancer cases, which is often a bogus claim. Nevertheless, given the community’s dread of the alleged effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the author effectively used fallacies to push the story.
In conclusion, fake news has become prevalent in present-day society that seeks to mislead people into believing false opinions. Even as people rely on different media for news, the same media has been used to spread fake news despite existing controls. Fake news is spread through fallacious statements that contain faulty logic. There are many different and varied kinds of fallacies that can be used in spreading fake news, and more keeps developing. The article by SkyNews.Com propagated fake news using hasty generalization, bandwagon fallacy, and appeal to authority. The author succeeded in spreading fake news that ended up damaging society, given that fear was created in society regarding the COVID-19 disease. Therefore, the media has a role in spreading the truth to the population, not to harm. However, the media houses that take part in spreading false information need to pay the fine or rather suffer a jail term.
Works Cited
“Cancer Cases Surge Amid COVID-19 Lockdowns”. Skynews, Web.
Duffy, Andrew, et al. “Too Good to Be True, Too Good Not to Share: The Social Utility of Fake News.” Information, Communication & Society, vol. 23, no. 13, 2019, pp. 1–15, Web.