Is Fake News Real?

After President Trump first reintroduced the phrase, “Fake news” (via Twitter of course) it has become a joke among any sort of news that goes against his administration. But what exactly is “fake news”, and which sources participate in it?

You may have heard of yellow journalism that began in the late 1800’s when widespread newspapers were up and coming. It began as a battle between Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. Eventually, the competition got so heated that each newspaper started exaggerating the truth a little to make the stories a little more interesting, thus leading to the creation of yellow journalism.

Wikipedia describes fake news as, “A type of yellow journalism or propaganda that consists of deliberate misinformation or hoaxes spread via traditional print and broadcast news media or online social media” A broad definition, but that’s why many news sources actually apply to this. Some more-so than others; for example CNN didn’t become a worldwide news network by lying to its readers. But there can be circumstances in which certain news sources are trying to get out breaking news information before other competitors, possibly without all the certain facts.

So is Trump right? Are most news sources “fake”? I Personally, I think President Trump could be biased towards what is said and what he just doesn’t want to hear, but I think the answer lies within the reader. In our society of pop-up ads and 140-characters worth of information you must decipher and be alert enough to decide what’s real and what’s just egging you to click a link.