The Slippery Slope of an Internet Hoax
The Slippery Slope of an Internet Hoax
Words by Rheanna Martinez / Photos by Leonardo Correa Luna
I’m sure you were entertained by the live tweets of the note-passing war on a delayed Thanksgiving flight, where producer elan Gale got into a heated hand-written exhange with fellow passenger Diane. Maybe you were #TeamDiane
or #Teamelan, associating with whoever struck some relation to your past travel experiences. Well friends, it was all a hoax. Perhaps it was intended simply for entertainment value, or to increase followers, or maybe — just because.
We were following along closely, shaking our heads, offering our own opinions. And even major news networks were covering this. They obviously fact-check, so it had to be valid, right?
In an age where we value the internet for late- breaking news, what can we accept as true? These social sites not only provide us with news, but entertainment…and a lot of it. everyone is trying to go viral with video, live-tweets, anything. So what does this mean for media outlets and journalists trying to get a competitive edge and be the first to report a story — are they taking the time to fact-check?
Unfortunately this isn’t just occurring with entertainment value stories. It’s real-life, urgent breaking news, and major news outlets we trust that are stumbling and mis-reporting. Take for example, after the Boston marathon bombings, when several people were falsely labeled as
the main suspects on Reddit and two falsely labeled on the cover of the New York Post. This is unfortunate, inaccurate journalism and happening everywhere.
Sometimes it might be a lighthearted story like the note-passing feud, easy for us to pass off, but we’re not always lucky enough to laugh at our gullibility. Common sense — and not getting lost in the dramatic heat of a late-breaking moment
— could probably serve us well, and often answer our own questions of plausibility. So let’s try to remain skeptical about what we read and believe before joining the masses of social sharing.
