For this weeks blog post I decided to use a Washington Post article (found on my Twitter or at bottom of page) I found. I found a headline about the situation while I was scrolling through my Twitter feed for this class and decided it looked like a good topic to explore. The original headline for the tweet was titled “New York forcing citizens to receive covid vaccine”. I googled “vaccine mandate New York” and found the Washington post article that went more in depth about the situation. Just doing a quick scan through I was able to get some more details about the situation. The mandate has actually been in effect for very long however, a judge recently declined a halt to the mandate. The mandate also does not effect everyone. It only effects municipal employees and only requires one dose of any vaccine. The judge argued that this was no different than requiring a measles vaccine which they gave for years. This is the perfect example of a headline trying to grab readers attention with information that doesn’t explain the “whole truth”. While New York does have a mandate for some specific citizens, it is not statewide like the headline could imply. If people took a second to google what the tweet was talking about they would be so much more educated about the situation instead of jumping to conclusions.
Washington Post Article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/10/28/new-york-city-vaccine-mandate-judge/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=wp_main
We've focused a lot on the fake news/misinformation on Facebook over the course of this class, but we haven't talked about fake news and the spread of false information on other social platforms. I think social media posts like this, across all social platforms, are harmful no matter what platform it's on. Like you said, a simple Google search can clear up any confusion or set the story straight, but most people don't/won't do that. Even though more and more people are becoming distrusting of news outlets, it seems that people have become less likely to do their own research on a topic. It is only going to get easier for people or news outlets to spread misinformation if voters aren't double checking the source that it came from.
ReplyDeleteHaley, I just read a different post regarding the nature of a headline just wanting to get readers to click even if the information is not the whole truth. The fact that is was so easy for you to do your own search on this topic and read and learn is something that other people should do as well. On the other side of that, why can't the outlets that are sharing this information just tell the truth right. However, if people were to quickly search if something like this was true or not, it would save a lot of false information being spread.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble is that so many people have short attention spans these days. They think that the headlines tell them everything they need to know. Catchy titles used to draw readers in, become the entire story. If a source is one that the reader trusts, readers are far less likely to do their own investigation.
DeleteHaley you made a very important point in this post about how many people jump to conclusions because of click-bait titles. Many people turn to social media and share the fake article title to show how New York is forcing its citizens to get the vaccine. A simple title has started mass debates and outbursts when it is not even the truth. They also use harsh terms such as forcing in order to further push the falseness of their statement. It is sad to say that many people believe tweets and instagram posts rather than accredited and accurate news websites. This has shown how much of a hold social media has on our current media and politics. Many people have become too lazy to even type in the article that they believe the fake tweet would be true. It makes me wonder what the next steps of political news will be once more social media is created or evolves. Great job!
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