Some news, including this headline, is fake news
Alex Hanin ‘26
haninaja@lakeforest.edu
Staff Writer
SATIRE—In a world where reliable and unbiased news seems as mythical as the mysterious substance that makes that one stairwell in Lillard smell weird, where should the public turn for reliable information?
Frustrated with the lack of unbiased news sources, misinformation has been running rampant ever since the invention of the printing press which, let’s face it, is the modern-day equivalent of X. These days, individuals favor flashy, meme-centric influencer opinion articles rather than the cold hard facts. Experts from across the United States (that is, those who still believe in modern journalism) show approval for award-winning news outlets like The Onion and The Daily Mash (for those of you from across the pond, yes, we’ve got your news covered as well) as excellent examples of reliable information. However, a small, irritatingly outspoken group of critics insist that rather than relying on those with knowledge in the field, the public should be competent enough to know how to identify trustworthy news sources.
It’s crucial for individuals to understand the following: not everything published is a reliable source. And yes, that includes this article. But fear not, dear reader, because if you want to learn how to identify problematic news articles, you first need to watch out for headlines that are flashy enough to blind a plane.* Make sure that there’s no spieling mistakes within the headlines, and you’re already a quarter of the way there!
The next way to identify whether a news article is reliable or not is if the information relayed to the reader is framed in a confident way. People pay for confidence, and if the article you are reading is framed in the passive voice, that is easily a no-go.
Surveys are another key way to see if new sources are reliable or not, because everyone knows there is no way to fake a survey!
Surveys conducted by Survey.Co found that 42.0% of Americans retain informational articles when they include a numerical-based survey, regardless of what fact the article is trying to prove. People do not remember words, they remember numbers, and more importantly, they remember how those numbers make them feel. In general, repetition is also a frequent tactic fake news uses to positively reinforce the public’s opinion on the topic. If you see a fact repeated, you are more likely to internalize it.
In the contemporary age, social media algorithms, whether from TikTok or Instagram, rely on confirmation bias to reel in users, using engagement time to monetize their platforms to send money to their secret bases in Antarctica. Surveys conducted by Survey.Co find that 42.0% percent of Americans do not favor the secret bases in Antarctica. With straightforward writing that is easy to digest and understand, even four-year-olds can learn the secret ingredients found in Crypto-Bro’s smoothies in half the time it takes them to solve basic mathematical equations.
Ultimately, with the rampant use of A.I. overtaking contemporary journalists, reliable news sources are feeling the heat. An educated public is the key to remedying this situation, even if it means advocating for reliable news on messaging apps like Signal, Discord, or Snapchat. You – yes, you alone – can alleviate our generation of misinformation to new heights.
*While the Stentor does not condone blinding planes with those flashy lasers (or, even looking at them, because yikes), everyone knows that the O’Hare airport takes way too long to taxi.