MEDIA LAW

A new concept for me was libel. Libel is something that you can be arrested for, but still commonly occurs. To prove libel, you have to prove five things. The first one is defamation. Defamation is basically defaming someone by writing something that hurts someone’s reputation. This cannot be proved if the writing was written by someone in a government position and also can change with time. 

The second of the five is identification. When proving libel, the person you are accusing has to be able to be identified. It doesn't necessarily mean that you have to include an exact name, and it doesn't mean it has to be a certain individual either. For example, you could say 'a sophomore cheerleader' or a basketball team.

Third is publication. To prove libel, the writing has to be public for people to see. The rules sort of fit together. You cannot defame someone if the writing isn't public to begin with, and you can't defame someone without saying who they are. 

Fourth is fault, this can be proven two ways. One, they had to have known that what they were writing was false or likely false. The other way would be to show that they didn't look into their claims or information well enough. 

Lastly is damage. The more damage that the piece caused/the more people who saw it is equal to the intensity or the punishment or consequences. Even though fake news is almost everywhere, this law helps keep the number lower. In law helps the world of journalism by providing the internet with quality news. This also helps bring attention to the real stories fake ones

FAKE NEWS

Fake news is all over the internet, but can often be hard to identify. For me especially, I am a bit gullible when it comes to fake news. On Instagram, my friend sent me a picture from a meme account. The picture said that Halloween would fall on Friday the 13th this year. This is an example of fake news and also shows that you can find it anything. I'm pretty sure most people would automatically know that it was fake, but that wasn't the case for me. I often believe everything that people tell me because I feel that I have no reason not to. 

Another thing that I often fall for is clickbait. I have always known what clickbait was an often able to identify it, but didn't know that it was considered fake news. Clickbait is when someone takes a small amount of the truth or what happened and over exaggerates it, sometimes to the point where it is completely untrue. 

Clickbait isn't only making something sound better than it really is, clickbait can also be just capitalizing words, using an excessive amount of exclamation marks, or even having a captivating thumbnail. I mostly see clickbait on YouTube, in fact many people that I watch use clickbait. People tend to use it to bring more attention to their video over another's. Even if you're just grocery shopping, you will see clickbait. When Waiting in line glancing at magazines, there are bolded words and dramatic expression trying to get you to buy the magazine, or to just simply read the article. You can find clickbait on products claiming that it is 'NEW' or the 'BEST PRODUCT'. You can even find it in coupon books, forcing you to come back for more. This is also commonly used in journalism. Some journalist stretches the truth for their headline. While some may call it strategy, it is actually just fake news and is everywhere.