By: Riley Wiley
A group of RSJ journalists explored fake news in the media surrounding the 2020 United States Presidential election.
Numerous accounts of fake news were spread during the 2020 election, from ballot burning to fake social media videos, media saw it all.
Investigating Fake News
RSJ journalists explored a series of accounts of these pieces of fake news, such as Eric Trump retweeting fake videos of ballot burnings.
Based on a study from Statista on news in Canada, it was found that over a third of people believe what they read in the news half of the time or more.
With the number of lies masked as facts that float around on social media hubs like Twitter and Instagram, that can be scary to hear as readers should question everything they read.
How to Avoid Fake News
Piecing this information together, along with the fake news that spread during the 2016 election, RSJ journalists wanted to explore how to avoid falling for fake news.
There are a variety of ways to avoid fake news. We talked to an expert in U.S. politics about the election, and he had some comments about the danger of the fake news being spread.
“I feel that the fake news about electoral fraud undermines the legitimacy of Biden, and this will continue even after the electoral college votes,” said Beland when asked how he thinks fake news will continue to affect the United States after the election concludes.
Question your news sources, always reference news sources from multiple political alignments, cross-reference all the facts you see on social media, etc.
Most importantly: question everything. Test how much you know about the 2020 U.S. presidential election and fake news with RSJ’s quiz below.
Graphic and Interactives about fake news (Sofia Ariza/RSJ)
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