Truth and reliability

A very interesting aspect of online journalism was raised in a blog by Samuel Hamilton entitled “The humour of truth and reliability”.  In this blog, Samuel discussed real and fake news sites and whether people could tell the difference.  He raises the question:  ”Is there a concern that people might not know what is news and what isn’t?” 

Samuel bases his information on two completely different news sites.  A real one, The New York Times, and a fake one, The Onion.  The fact that the latter is not widely known as a false news site could mean that some people take what it says to be true.  

Samuel observes that the layout of its website even resembles that of the New York Times despite it all being completely false.  He says that not everyone may understand that it is meant as a “piece of satire, a light-hearted joke”.  Users of the site could be forgiven for falling into the trap given its  unashamedly boastful yet untrue tagline “America’s Finest News Source”. 

The reality of the situation is that the site is very misleading and could give the user the completely wrong idea.  Even its video content, as Samuel mentioned is completely false.  He uses the following video to demonstrate how it could lead to people believing that this man was outsourcing his job to India.

Although it seems completely ridiculous it must be recognised that not everyone will understand the concept.  Not everyone is as Internet savvy as is necessary to view this site with humour.