Q5 Fake or Real News: Circular Reporting

Fake News

Fake news has existed for a long time, with journalists or the paparazzi stretching the truth to sell their stories. Consider the true story of two very famous rival newspaper owners in the 1890s, William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. These men fought for their readers' attention by embellishing stories to sell newspapers. 

Today, journalism is not much different, with television media filled with entertainment news, reality TV, and exaggerated stories spread on social media. Due to the speed at which news can now travel, circular reporting is a new phenomenon causing the quick spread of fake news. 

Step 1. Play the "How False News Can Spread" video in the right column and learn more about circular reporting. 

Step 2. Circular reporting, or the spread of fake news, can often create a filter bubble, where our biases allow fake news to continue to spread without anyone questioning the source. So, in simple terms, what happens is:

• Someone writes a story that is not true and publishes it.
• It is read, reported, and published by someone else, and not fact-checked. 
• Then, it keeps spreading by word of mouth or publication, and soon, everyone believes it to be true because it is in so many news sources. That is circular reporting, and that is how fake news is spread.

Can you think of a recent example and share it with your classmates? For example, how often have you heard a particular celebrity is pregnant or has passed away? 

On the next page, you will learn about different resources you can use to fact-check political stories.