I once heard in passing from someone I can't remember at a time I can't recall about an article I cannot find. The headline across the top read "Russia Finishes 2nd! USA finishes 2nd to last." I was told by the random acquaintance that this headline detailed a sporting competition of some sort (probably involving snowballs) set a long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, in a war that was very cold cold. The Shyamalan spoiler here is that there were only two teams competing, and that the USA won and Russia lost (came in 2nd). An alternative headline in the US papers could have read "USA Finishes first! Russia in Last" with an entire page full of the "U S A! U S A!" in chant form filling the rest of the page.
Misleading headlines and scrollers at the bottom of TV news programs are being heralded more as the culprits of fake news than actual fake news (just plain lies, though I'm sure those exist too). The above story is an exaggerated version of this tactic, but just how effective can these misleading headlines be?
A 2014 article in the Washington Post stated that:
"Overall, 41 percent of Americans report that they watched, read, or heard any in-depth news stories, beyond the headlines, in the last week. Slightly more people, 49 percent, report that they invested additional time to delve deeper and follow up on the last breaking news story they followed." -Chris Cillizza (Washington Post).
When a headline is going be not only the main source, but potentially the ONLY source for 59 percent of news followers, it seems the headline is going to have a lot of sway in the opinions readers form about these articles. A few more examples:
In a recent Steve King (rep. Iowa- R) interview with Chris Cuomo, King was quoted saying "If you go down the road a few generations, or maybe centuries, with the inter-marriage, I'd like to see an America that is just so homogenous that we look a lot the same." It would seem that he's implying he expects the racial divide narrow due to the idea that generations down the road, the stigma of interracial marriage and reproduction will continue to dissipate and the fact that the races themselves being less discernible will ultimately remove the possibility for racism to exist. HOWEVER...
By selecting only the second half of this quote another headline emerges in jezebel- "GOP Rep. Steve King Would Like to See an America That's 'So Homogenous That We Look a Lot the Same." The disconnect in logic from input to output kicks in here and immediately quotes follow inferring that Steve King means that he wants everyone to be white (which isn't even provable from that statement. This to me is a better representation of fake news (misleading headlines).
(don't worry Donald, we'll get to your own fake news shortly. I'm not here to just defend the Republicans)
THE DISCONNECT THEORY SECTION: (note: this section will be mostly free-flowing opinion not fact... As I will attempt to assume or at least guess motivation for any of these actors.
The media outlets: How does a wide-eyed "i wanna get the truth out there!" journalist fall into the pitfalls of purposely twisting the truth to create a more incendiary headline? Possibly once hired by a media outlet with an agenda, their job no longer becomes to disseminate the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth (a VERY important concept in information even in our everyday lives); but their agenda becomes to cover and promote high profile, high tension headlines to increase viewership and simultaneously promote the news agency's agenda. So struck by the salary check, the promotion, and the feeling of superiority, the once innocent reporter feels propelled forward at a rate faster than he/she is comfortable with and eventually begins to justify the actions taken to satisfy the reporter's bottom line.
NONE of these motivations are beneficial for the public who assumes the media has the goal of disseminating the most accurate information to them.
Disconnect alert: the media wants to make money and does so by advancing their own agenda
the viewers of the media believe the media only wants to disseminate the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Does anybody think one of these sides should be recognizing the intentions of the others???
Too much typing... That's all I got till tomorrow where the commander-in-chief may have some fake news of his own!
thanks, doug