NDM 26

Trust in news media takes a hit during Trump presidency

This article is about people people's inability to differentiate between what is real and what isn't in terms of news. With Trump shouting 'fake news' and such it is hard for general american public to do just that, believe just that. 
Trump has made it an effort to make others see new outlets as false attacking news outlets and journalists as "failing" and "fake news.", repeatedly calling reporters "the enemy of the people".

• Trump-era phenomenon in their lives as the president and the media he denigrates as "fake news" fight to be seen as the more credible source.
• Widely shared falsehoods have snagged the attention of world leaders such as Pope Francis and former President Barack Obama.
• The survey found that Republicans and Democrats are about equally likely to say that "fake news" leaves Americans deeply confused about current events.

I think this links to Baudrillard's theory of hyper- reality and living in a simulation where everything inst real and even the things on the news are staged.  The article even states when a North Carolina man was convinced himself from a article that a Washington pizza store was concealing a child prostitution ring; "all from widely shared falsehood". 

• About 2 in 3 American adults say fabricated news stories cause a great deal of confusion about the basic facts of current affairs, according to a Pew Research Center report last month. 
• Two-thirds of Americans get at least some of their news from social media

This quote reflects with the 23% of 15-23 year olds not looking into the sources of new stories and believing them as soon as they see it shared or on their feed. For this really reinforces that we live in an age of "simulation" due to the public themselves being unable to know what is considered 'real news' rather everyone is very sceptical but also believe what they read.

Last year, National Geographic were caught faking 'shark attacks' for their shark attack week and when confronted about it stated that the amount of "glamorisation" of the topic added to the other stories made the overall show better. Though questions, Are we substituting realism for likes?