Within the Heart of the Media

Fake News.

Today, where internet is so large and where anybody is allowed to voice their own opinions and articles about topics, it is hard to realize what is ‘real’ news and what is ‘fake’ news that has been written by someone say, on a website. There are different forms of journalistic discourse such as; fake news, citizen journalism and Indymedia. Fake news, also known as News Satire is a type of parody presented in a format that is similar to that of mainstream journalism; it is called satire because of its content. These forms of ‘fake news’ are common mostly on the internet where people can write about almost anything and where it is pretty easy to copy a credible news source. The goals of news satire are to make a social commentary in a certain form that provides entertainment for the reader. Sites such as The Onion, About.com and Humourfeed.com are all examples of websites that both contain and contribute to news satire. Citizen journalism, also known as public or participating journalism or democratic journalism is the act of citizens “playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information” (Shayne Bowman & Chris Willis) There are even institutions formed for the basic purpose of Citizen Journalism for example ICJ (Institute for Citizen Journalism) which was founded by a group of active journalists in Vancouver Canada. This non-profit organization is dedicated to improving the quality and integrity of journalism around the world. ICJ aims to bridge the gap between mainstream media and people’s stories by allowing members to gain access to broader media skills and platforms to effectively express their voices. Indymedia is pretty much the same as citizen journalism; it is a collection of independent media organizations and hundreds of journalists offering non-corporate coverage. It is a democratic media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate and passionate telling of the truth.
The book ‘Toxic Sludge is good for you” explains Public Relations involvement with what we see and what we hear in the news. “One of the most cherished freedoms in a democracy is the right to freely participate in the marketplace of ideas. We value this freedom because without it, all out other freedoms are impossible to defend.” In our world today any idea, it doesn’t matter how crazy or absurd get the equal attention that the not so crazy ideas get, it is fake news, indymedia and news satire create the basis for these ‘crazy ideas’.


Works Cited
News Satire. http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/news_satire
The Institute for Citizen Journalism http://www.icjournalism.org/
Independent Media Center http://www.indymedia.org/en/index.shtml

posted by Brittany Pacitti's Mass Communications @ 6:01 AM