Journal Entry #8 - Facing Fake News

The amount of information that is given in the photograph leads to many questions towards its credibility. The photograph shows the deformed flowers but, the information that accompanies the photograph is not enough to back up the photo. There could be speculation that the photograph was photoshopped. This could be a subject of fake news. There are no scientific facts that back up the photographs reasoning. There also are no other references/sources other than the photo itself. The evidence provided does not seem to be strong enough to be believable. Although the photo evidence is a strong point, there is just not enough extra information to back it up. Questions that immediately rise in my mind are, "are the grounds safe enough to walk on, only years after the nuclear disaster?". There is too many loose ends to immediately trust the article.

To verify this claim, I would go into a deep research. I would find sources that are involved on sight and have a knowledge of the matter. The amount of information given on the topic is not enough to verify the legibility of the photograph. Not only is the lack of information a factor but, also the lack of scientific facts is too. An article posted by the National Geographic goes into detail about how scientists are questioning the credibility of this article. This one event of deformation to the flowers is not enough to link it back to the nuclear disaster. The photo may be real but the reasoning is not justified. The link to the article is below.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/150723-fukushima-mutated-daisies-flowers-radiation-science/

This article could possibly correspond with the topic of propaganda and fake news. Just like in the case of "Yellow Journalism", this news report could possibly have been made to sell their news. The journalist could have posted this article in efforts to get their name out there or in the desire to discover a ground breaking story. Satire news and fake news a quite different. Usually, satire is much easier to spot on the web. Although in some cases, satire is hard to spot, I personally find it not too hard to pick out. There usually is a bit of sarcasm within the articles that can be spotted. The topics discussed in satire also can be a bit more far fetched. Fake news is dangerous because, it can lead people to believe false information. Fake news can also cause people to take action against the topics with the wrong mindset. Fake news is hard to spot but it is important to spot. Finding the lies can help in the effort to bring the truth to light and put a stop to fake news. The fact-checking toolkit is a very good method to follow. Checking for facts and key elements of the story to determine its credibility. Knowing whether the news that you're reading is real or fake is extremely important.

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