Misinformation has become a very prevalent issue in modern society. Media sources ranging from online commentators to legacy news channels have all condemned ideals or opinions involving or based on inaccuracies, and yet with many being very quick to put down these blunders, they ironically sometimes tell their own fair share.
Modern media has become much more complex than it was even five years ago, with social media being a dominant source of information for many. While this does improve the timeliness and human interest standpoints of modern journalism (as people have easier access to more relevant information), it mainly lacks in the accuracy sector. The factor of inaccuracy is
The media itself has a bit of a history when it comes to inaccurate information, from yellow journalism in the early 1900s to now with opinions and theories being at times more rampant than truth. Ms. Kelly Guffey, the AP Government & Economics teacher and head of the social studies department, said, “I do think that the media is more likely to cover opinions… some of it is just straight-up lies, like literally things that didn’t happen.”
A time when multiple major examples of this misinformation were prevalent was during the 2024 presidential election, during which many different inaccuracies were everywhere. One of these examples was regarding the debate between candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, after which many people began believing a lie that Harris had been using an earpiece during the presidential debate.
This idea was primarily spread by far-right influencers and news channels such as Newsmax, and many users of social media outlets including X and TikTok readily believed these theories. However, even when this was fact-checked and literal simulations of the event were played out yielding a result disproving the theory, many still believed it.
Another example on the other side of the political aisle regarded a theory that then-candidate Donald Trump was going to follow a plan known as Project 2025 during his presidency. The 900-page document, which Trump never endorsed and even distanced himself from, was readily snapped up by the media and many lies and inaccuracies sprouted from it.
Examples included people saying that certain ideas were in the document when they were not, such as false plans involving cutting social security and even a national ban on Muslims entering the country. The reason this idea became so widespread is mainly because opposing candidate Kamala Harris told her supporters at a rally that Trump endorsed the former regarding cutting social security and Medicare.
“[Donald Trump] intends to cut social security and Medicare, and he wants to impose what is, in effect, a national sales tax,” Harris.
Both of these statements were denounced by Trump, and yet after she and many supporting news sites repeated this, it just went down a bit of a rabbit hole.
Brophy is making an excellent effort to help students learn more about the world around them, with events such as the annual Summit on Human Dignity and last year’s Day of Democracy allowing students to move past the opinion and get to the fact. It is essential now more than ever before to keep informed and find out the truth.