Weeds in a Flower Bed

 Although much progress has been made to spread factual information, right-winged media outlets are still pushing false narratives to their audiences. One thing that caught my attention over the past few weeks was the situation with Marjorie Taylor Green.

Ever since the storming of the capitol, house representatives have been "weeded out" in a sense in an attempt to determine who took part or played a role in the insurrection. Through investigation, media findings proved that Green contributed to the deadly riots that occurred on January 6th. However, regardless of this evidence, right-winged media platforms still tried to push the narrative that she had done nothing wrong and deserved to be spared from punishment. It is news outlets like these that make is extremely difficult for people to decide which perspectives they side with instead of being swayed by falsehoods.

"Combating Fake News: An Agenda for Research and Action" makes great points in regards to WHY people follow and share fake news. For starters, people tend to create social groups with like-minded people, and thus similar information is traded within these groups. The phenomenon that occurs next is something akin to social credibility; people are more willing to trust sources that are credible (take FOX or CNN for example), however, that credibility doubles when it is validated within social groups. People are more likely to go along with the sources and narratives provided in a social group (especially when the majority agrees with them) in order to avoid embarrassment from being "wrong". This is not the case for every social group, but more often than not, this is how easy fake news spreads. Social media platforms also don't help combat the landslide of false news and practically breed communities where memes and ads fuel inaccurate stories.

All of this is to say that people will always have differing opinions, but it is better to let them decide which narratives and perspectives they will side with instead of winning supporters through misinformation.