1. Top of FormTravelEz sells dollars at a rate of ($1.40)(1 e.docx

1. 1. Top of Form TravelEz sells dollars at a rate of ($1.40)/(1 euro) and buys dollars at a rate of ($1.80)/(1 euro). At the beginning of a trip, Sophie exchanged $540 to get 300 euros. At the end of the trip she is left with 40 euros, so she exchanges the 40 euros back to dollars. How many dollars will Sophie get in exchange? 1. $72 2. $22 3. $56 4. $28 Bottom of Form 2. Top of Form Question 2 10 Points Sarah is planning a party at a party hall. The meal option is $50 per person and includes the hall for free. The hall-only option is $1,500 but allows an external caterer, which charges $30 per person. Sarah plans to invite 40 people. Which is a better cost comparison? 1. Meal option: $2,700. Hall-only option: $2,000. Hall-only option is cheaper. 2. Meal option: $1,000. Hall-only option: $3,500. Meal option is cheaper. 3. Meal option: $3,000. Hall-only option: $1,200. Hall-only option is cheaper.

2. 4. Meal option: $2,000. Hall-only option: $2,700. Meal option is cheaper. Bottom of Form 3. Top of Form Question 3 10 Points Alex invests $2,000 in a company's stock. After a year, the value of Alex's stock has increased to $2,500. What rate of return has Alex received? 1. 50% 2. 80% 3. 25% 4. 11% Bottom of Form 4. Top of Form Question 4 10 Points 6 people will attend a lunch. 2 cans of juice should be provided per person. Determine the total number of cans of juice required. 1. 12 cans of juice 2. 6 cans of juice 3. 4 cans of juice 4. 3 cans of juice Bottom of Form

3. 5. Top of Form Question 5 10 Points The recipe for a fruit smoothie requires 2 cups of fruit per 6 cups of yogurt to maintain a 1/3 ratio. While making the fruit smoothie, Suzy accidentally puts 3 cups of fruit into the pitcher. How many cups of yogurt should be put in the pitcher to maintain the ratio of 1/3? 1. 3 cups 2. 9 cups 3. 1 cup 4. 5 cups Bottom of Form 6. Top of Form Question 6 10 Points A person is holding two drill bits, one is 7/16 and the other is 25/64, and wants to first drill a hole using the smaller bit. To compare, the person expands 7/16 to 64ths. What is the expanded fraction? 1. 14/64 2. 21/64 3. 24/64 4. 28/64 Bottom of Form 7.

4. Top of Form Question 7 10 Points A self storage center is a storage room that is 8 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 10 feet high. What is the volume of the room? 1. 24 cubic feet 2. 48 cubic feet 3. 140 cubic feet 4. 480 cubic feet Bottom of Form 8. Top of Form Question 8 10 Points Zoey wants to use her iPad throughout a 6-hour flight. Upon takeoff, she uses the iPad for 2 hours and notices that the battery dropped by 25%, from 100% to 75%. How many total hours can Zoey expect from the iPad on a full battery charge? 1. 10 hours 2. 4 hours 3. 8 hours 4. 6 hours Bottom of Form 9. Top of Form Question 9 10 Points A store in Minnesota advertises that on a holiday, everything is

5. 20% off. A person buys shoes for $40 and socks for $10. In Minnesota there is no tax on shoes or socks. What is the final price? 1. $20 2. $40 3. $50 4. $30 Bottom of Form 10. Top of Form Question 10 10 Points Convert 2 3/4 to a decimal number. 1. 0.75 2. 1.50 3. 2.3 4. 2.75 Bottom of Form 11. Top of Form Question 11 10 Points Consider a cookie recipe in which 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips are needed to make 25 cookies. Lara wants to double the number of cookies. How many cups of chocolate chips should she use? 1. 1 1/2

6. 2. 2 3. 2 1/2 4. 3 Bottom of Form 12. Top of Form Question 12 10 Points Ryan remembers numbers using images that look somewhat like each number: 0 is a ball, 1 is a stick, 2 is a hanger, 3 is a comb, 4 is a kite, etc. Ryan remembered a 4-digit phone extension with this story: A person uses a hanger to pop a ball, then flies two kites. What number is Ryan likely remembering? 1. 2,044 2. 2,042 3. 2,004 4. 2,204 Bottom of Form 13. Top of Form Question 13 10 Points Jules goes on a hike that will last 5 hours total. She brings 12 cups of water. After an hour, she has already drunk 3 cups of water. At that rate, how many cups would Jules need for all 5 hours? 1. 8 cups 2.

7. 15 cups 3. 9 cups 4. 12 cups Bottom of Form 14. Top of Form Question 14 10 Points Dana is attaching a shelf to a wall and needs the shelf to be perpendicular to the wall. How many degrees should the shelf be relative to the wall? 1. 45 2. 90 3. 180 4. 360 Bottom of Form 15. Top of Form Question 15 10 Points One rule of thumb in the fast-food restaurant business is a "4 times markup": The price of a food item should be four times the price of the ingredients used in making the item. If the cost of ingredients used in making a taco is 1.5 dollars, what should be the price of the taco? 1. 6 dollars 2. 7.5 dollars 3.

8. 5.5 dollars 4. 4 dollars Bottom of Form 16. Top of Form Question 16 10 Points Jo is on the phone with a gardener who asks about the square feet of Jo's backyard. Jo counts 20 steps long and 40 steps wide (with each step being about 3 feet). About how many square feet is the backyard? 1. 120 ft2 2. 360 ft2 3. 800 ft2 4. 7,200 ft2 Bottom of Form 17. Top of Form Question 17 10 Points The price of a sandwich decreases from $8 to $6. What is the percentage decrease in the price of the sandwich? 1. 33% 2. 25% 3. 20% 4. 14% Bottom of Form

9. 18. Top of Form Question 18 10 Points Duke takes a car in for basic service. The service agent says a few extra repairs are needed, so Duke adds the cost of those repairs mentally, rounding to the nearest 10. What is Duke's total estimate for the repairs? The costs are as follows: . Wheel alignment: $82 . Transmission fluid flush: $157 . Cabin air filter: $58 Note: 4 or less rounds down, 5 or more rounds up. For example, 14 becomes 10, while 15 becomes 20. 18. 280 18. 290 18. 300 18. 310 Bottom of Form 1. Top of Form Question 19 10 Points A house is on an 80,000 sq. ft lot. About how many acres is the lot? There are 43,560 square feet in a acre. 19. 1/2 acre 19. 1 acre 19. 1 1/2 acres 19.

10. 2 acres Bottom of Form 1. Top of Form Question 20 10 Points Nik, a social worker for a county, helps county residents who are struggling with different issues. Nik logs the following hours meeting with clients (c) or doing other work (o): . Mon: 6 c, 4 o . Tue: 8 c, 2 o . Wed: 9 c, 1 o . Thu: 7 c, 3 o . Fri: Off What percent of time did Nik spend with clients on Thursday? 20. 10% 20. 70% 20. 30% 20. 80% Bottom of Form 1. Top of Form Question 21 10 Points A couple decides that Sophia will drive the first 3/5 of a trip and Lucas the last 2/5. The trip is 100 miles (the whole trip). How far will Sophia drive? 21. 40 miles 21. 60 miles

11. 21. 20 miles 21. 30 miles Bottom of Form 1. Top of Form Question 22 10 Points A wall is 500 sq. feet. A gallon of paint covers 160 sq. feet. What is an appropriate conversion factor to help determine how many gallons will be needed to paint the wall? 22. (1 gallon)/(160 sq. feet) 22. (1 gallon)/(500 sq. feet) 22. (160 gallon)/(500 sq. feet) 22. (500 gallon)/(560 sq. feet) Bottom of Form 1. Top of Form Question 23 10 Points 15 people are expected for a dinner. Three ounces of corn serves one person. A can of corn is nine ounces. How many cans of corn should be bought for the dinner? 23. 18 cans 23. 12 cans 23. 3 cans 23. 5 cans

12. Bottom of Form 1. Top of Form Question 24 10 Points A circular garden has a diameter of 12 feet. About how much trim is needed to surround the garden by placing trim on the garden's circumference? 24. 38 feet 24. 48 feet 24. 144 feet 24. 432 feet Bottom of Form 1. Top of Form Question 25 10 Points A new company president is said to have caused the company "to do a 180." Before the new president, the company was losing money. What is the company most likely doing under the new president? 25. Losing a lot more money 25. Losing a little more money 25. Losing the same amount of money 25. Making money rather than losing Bottom of Form 1. Top of Form

13. Question 26 10 Points A person buys 28 bottles of orange juice for a party. The store clerk offers cardboard carrying cases for the bottles, each case holding 6 bottles. How many cases are needed, assuming each case should be filled as much as possible and the person will not be carrying any bottles outside of a case? 26. 1 26. 3 26. 4 26. 5 Bottom of Form 1. Top of Form Question 27 10 Points A box is 24 inches long, 10 inches wide, and 10 inches deep. About how many cubic feet is the box? 27. 1.4 ft3 27. 2.8 ft3 27. 240 ft3 27. 2,400 ft3 Bottom of Form 1. Top of Form Question 28 10 Points Many gas stations give a discount for using cash instead of a

14. credit card. A gas station gives a discount of 10 cents per gallon. William plans to pump 14 gallons. How much will William save by paying cash instead of credit card? 28. 10 cents 28. 24 cents 28. 100 cents 28. 140 cents Bottom of Form 1. Top of Form Question 29 10 Points Nik needs to estimate how many books will fit in a bin. Each book is 1 ft tall, 0.5 ft wide, and 0.1 ft thick. The bin is 5 feet wide, 2 feet tall, and 3 feet deep. Based on volume only, about how many books will fit in the bin? 29. 6 29. 66 29. 60 29. 600 Bottom of Form 1. Top of Form Question 30 10 Points Mo is on a baseball team and hears that a ball thrown at a 45 degree angle from the ground will travel the furthest distance. How should Mo release the ball for the furthest travel?

15. 30. Nearly straight ahead, parallel to the ground 30. About halfway between straight ahead and straight up 30. About 2/3 of the way straight up 30. Nearly straight up, directly above his head Bottom of Form Running Head: FAKE NEWS 1 FAKE NEWS 6 Fake News [Can you think of a more effective title?] Stephanie Williams ENG/200: Rhetoric and Research 05/13/2020 [Repeat title on the first text page] Introduction

16. The invention and innovation of social media and digital platforms has raised concern in the amount and spread of fake news in these platforms but are their there are? ways in which this issue can be addressed and protect people from such news. The consequences of fake news on a brand and advertising are jeopardizing that brand and what is being advertised creating that the future of brands with fake news on the way is not good. One of the ways to solve fake news problem is by using the action plan created by the High level Expert group which is based on five pillars that are connected. Another solution is media literacy that is teaching people to be more literate about what they see in the media platforms. Effect on Brands Fake news creates controversial news that may contradict the content being advertised by the brand. Fake news usually crosses the ethically boundaries and end up portraying insidious news that was not on the content. Fake news can threaten a renowned capital brand and its equity when such news is associated with that brand thus creating bad reputation with that brand. According to (Pitt, Mills & Ferguson, 2019) advertisements for Girl Scout were entrenched on editorials with Jihadi sex-crimes; American Red Cross was presented along school shooting victims with Nazi symbol comparison. But fake news release on brand advertisement not only affects the moral display of the brand but also the context congruity of the advertisement. Excellent job using specific details and credible evidence! Media Literacy One of the ways of solving the problem of fake news is media literacy that is teaching people to be more literate about what they see in the media platforms. These lessons are to teach people to detect biased, and analyze information they view in social media platforms, televisions and what they listen on the radios. [Awkward and vague phrasing—Please rewrite for greater clarity.] This is because it is our responsible to seek out the truth and stop the spread of fake news. It is important for

17. one to research the news he or she has seen by looking for ways to spot a fake story or news. (Sutu, 2019) [Add the period after the in-text citation to complete the sentence, not before the in- text citation.] There are also news individuals and organizations that substituted reporting with propaganda, destined to manipulate the political choices of the listeners by creating stories to affect public insights for the advantage of a government or politician. These can be done by checking the website behind the news for instance sites ending with .com.co are not genuine, look for evidence from the writer and whether other reputable sources have published the same story (Zissou, 2019). Can you provide a specific example? Where does this media literacy take place? Are there classes you can take? Action Plan Another way is using the action plan created by the High Level Expert Group which is based on five pillars that are connected. The High Level Expert Group was created to advise the European Commission on issues about fake news and misinformation (Dumitrache, 2019). The solution created has five phases and is more of an action plan with the first pillar concerned with enhancing transparency of news in media platforms. The second pillar in the action plan is to promote media literacy, creating tools to counter fake news, supporting an environment where diversity of news can develop and lastly promoting research of ways to fight fake news. What about the rest of the pillars? Conclusion In conclusion, Delete empty phrase. The paragraph heading already says, Conclusion. the invention and innovation of social media and digital platforms have raised concern in the amount and spread of fake news in these platforms but are their ways in which this issue can be addressed and protect people from such news. Media literacy that is teaching people to be more literate about what they see in the media platforms. You only mentioned one solution. [Your essay will benefit from a stronger conclusion. A concluding paragraph summarizes the main idea,

18. ties the main points together neatly for the reader, and ends with a sense of finality. Avoid introducing new ideas in the conclusion.] Reference [You may want to access the Reference and Citation Generator from the Center for Writing Excellence homepage. This easy-to- use online tool will help you create properly formatted reference entries.] Which APA resource did you use? This page should have been corrected after Week Two’s feedback. Dumitrache, A. (2019). Shades of Fake News: Manifestation, Effects and Ways to Combat False Information. Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations vol. 21, no 2 (47) 41-57 ISSN: 1454-8100/ E-ISSN: 2344-5440 The title, volume number, issue number need to be correctly formatted. Pitt, C. Mills, A. & Ferguson, S. (2019). The Relationship between Fake News and Advertising Brand Management in the Era of Programmatic Advertising and Prolific Falsehood. Journal of Advertising Research. The title needs to be correctly formatted. Volume, issue, and page numbers are missing. Sutu, Rodica Melinda1 [email protected] 2019 Fake News, from Social Media to Television Case Study of the Romanian Presidential Elections. The author’s name, title needs to be correctly formatted. Volume, issue, and page numbers are

19. missing. Please delete the email address. Zissou, R. (2019). Fake news invasion: Made-up stories are taking over your news feed. How can you tell what's fact and protect yourself from fiction? Spotlight. Volume, issue, and page numbers are missing. Great work, Stephanie. You did a good job supporting your ideas with credible evidence. Your essay is well-organized. You did a great job using the third person point of view. You should continue to work on developing some of your paragraphs and the conclusion. Have you tried reading your essay aloud or have someone read it to you? In addition, please make sure your essay is no more than 750 words. ENG/200 v4 Self-Assessment ENG/200 v4 Page 2 of 2 Self-Assessment 1. What strategies did you use to appeal to your audience? How effective do you feel you have been in convincing the readers to agree with your position? Mark any passages that need improvement or additional support. Pay attention to areas where your instructor has provided feedback. Response: 2. What part of this paper are you the most proud of? Include a quote and/or description from your essay as an example. Explain why you think this part is effective. How might you amplify strengths like this in the final paper?Make a note to yourself within your draft to remind you where you want to

20. expand on the strengths you’ve mentioned. Response: 3. Review your thesis statement in the introduction and any comments from your instructor and include it here on the worksheet. Is it a complete sentence that reflects the main argument and does it contain 3 supporting reasons? If not, what changes will you make to revise it? (See also the thesis tutorials at the Center for Writing Excellence if you need additional support.) Response: 4. How, specifically, did you get the reader’s attention in the introduction? What style or approach did you use, and what did you hope to achieve by using it? If this part of your paper needs improvement, what strategy might you try instead? Why might this be a stronger strategy? Apply that change to the final paper. Response: 5. Examine the research you collected and used for support. In your rough draft, underline or highlight all the places where you have used evidence within the paper. Is each body paragraph supported by at least one piece of evidence, and is it compelling? Is the research from multiple sources, of which at least one is peer-reviewed? Make a note to yourself about places within each paragraph where you will want to revise the evidence you present and where you might need to add research to support your ideas. Check the citations against the references. Do they match up? If not, what revision must you

21. make? Response: 6. Do you feel that your paper shows a fair and balanced approach to your issue? If so, what did you do within the paper to ensure that was the case? If not, what specific changes will you make to be more balanced in your argument? How did you overcome any personal bias? Response: 7. Go to the last paragraph of your paper and read the last sentence of that paragraph. Does the sentence make sense? Does it use proper grammar, punctuation, and any APA style necessary? If not, make note of the changes you will need to make during revision. Do this same type of review moving backwards through the essay, sentence by sentence. As you review your writing in this way, you might notice errors and patterns that you missed when reading from beginning to end. What did you discover in terms of research content, style, language, or grammar in your draft? What are at least two resources that you can use to help strengthen and support your writing in these areas? Response: 8. Use one of the reviewing services available in the Center for Writing Excellence to review this document. What are the next steps you will take to revise your daft and prepare to finalize your paper? Review the grading guide for the final paper. If you were scoring your revised draft according to that standard, what score do you feel it would achieve and why do you believe so?

22. Response: Copyright 2019 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved. Copyright 2019 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved. A s Y o u R e a d , T h in k A b o u t : How can we stop the spread of fake news? Y ou’re scrolling through your Twitter feed when all of a sudden, a shocking headline fills your screen: “England BANS VIDEO GAMES!!” Outraged, you text your friends, who in turn text their friends. Could the United States be next, you wonder? Soon, millions of people across the country are sharing the article on Facebook and Twitter. Within hours, the story has gone viral. The only problem? The article is fake—and you fell for it. Made-up stories like that one are designed to look real but are completely or partly untrue. Sometimes it’s easy to tell when an article is false—words might be misspelled or randomly capitalized, or the headline might contain multiple exclamation points. But more often than not, fake-news writers are careful to make

23. their stories seem real by including headlines, details, and data that sound believable. Such articles may seem harmless, but they can have real consequences. For example, experts say that false stories may have influenced the 2016 U.S. presidential election. During the campaign, made-up articles about the two main candidates—including current president Donald Trump—were shared on Facebook nearly 38 million times. Many people now worry that deceptive stories could affect the outcome of next year’s presidential election. That would be a major problem, says Alan C. Miller. He’s the founder of the News Literacy Project, an organization that helps students learn how to spot misinformation. Part of being a good citizen means knowing what’s happening in the world around us— and being mindful that not everything we see on the internet and social media is true. “The overwhelming majority of information available online has not been verified,” says Miller. “It has not been approved by an editor or signed off on by a fact-checker. So we all need to have a healthy amount of skepticism about what we see.” History of Lies The act of influencing people with fake stories may seem new, but it’s been around for centuries. During the American Revolution (1775-1783), Benjamin Franklin, C h eck o u t o u r v id e o a t

24. junior.sicholastic.com f o r easy t ip s on h o w t o s p o t m a d e -u p s to rie s , e v a lu a te an a u th o r’ s sou rces, a n d id e n tify a ds o n s o c ia l m e d ia . M a n y e x p e rts w o r r y t h a t fa k e n ew s s to rie s c o u ld in flu e n c e n e x t y e a r ’s p re s id e n tia l e le c tio n . one of the nation’s founders, was VIDEO himself guilty of spreading false stories. He attempted to increase support for the war by writing articles that falsely claimed that the British had teamed up with Native Americans to murder colonial women and children. In the late 1800s, newspapers competed for readers by printing shocking headlines and overdramatizing stories. Sometimes writers made up quotes altogether and cited experts who didn’t exist.

25. The practice of creating scandalous news came to be known as yellow journalism. False Stories Spread Online But fake news really took off with the rise of the internet and social media. When your parents and grandparents were kids, most people learned about current events from a few respected newspapers or national news shows on major TV networks. For the most part, that news came straight from professional journalists, who had been trained to conduct thorough research, fact-check their stories, and report the facts. Today, however, almost anyone can write and post articles online—and potentially reach a large audience. Many fake news sites currently exist, including ones with official-sounding names, such as The Political Insider. Of course, plenty of trustworthy websites report news, including The New York Times (nytimes.com), The Wall Street Journal (wsj.com), and Junior Scholastic (junior.scholastic.com). In addition, many politicians have begun using the term fake news to refer to factual stories they simply disagree with or don’t like. That’s making it even harder for Americans to distinguish fact from fiction—and discouraging people from believing stories that are real. Fake News Means Big Money Why might someone want to post a fake story in the

26. first place? During presidential campaigns, people may be trying to influence Americans’ beliefs and, in turn, how they vote in the election. In other cases, the answer is simple: to make money. — ► G O T O JUNIOR.SCHOLASTIC.COM FOR: ill L e v e le d T e x t ► V id e o i S k ill B u ild e rs JUN IO R.SCH O LASTIC .C O M IS Many companies pay to place ads online—and websites that get a lot of visitors can charge high fees to run those ads. That’s because the more visitors a site has, the more views the ads get. Fake news websites often attract a lot of readers— and thus, a lot of money from ads—by posting stories with outrageous headlines that people are likely to click on and share. “I make like $10,000 a m onth,” fake-news writer Paul Horner told The Washington Post in 2016. In fact, one recent study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that, on Twitter, false stories spread she times as fast as factual ones— and reach far more readers. MIT researchers discovered that, on average, a false story can spread to 1,500 Twitter users in just 10 hours. By comparison, a factual story can take 60 hours to reach that many people. Don’t Be Fooled The good news is that a lot is being done to stop the spread of fake news. In recent years, for example, Google and Facebook have banned fake news sites from advertising on their pages. Facebook is also working with fact-checking organizations around the

27. world, including PolitiFact.com and FactCheck.org, to help identify and flag made-up articles that are posted on its platform so they can be deleted. In addition, lawmakers in several states, including Connecticut, New Mexico, and Washington, have recently passed or introduced bills requiring public schools to teach media literacy. Such lessons would show students how to analyze information from websites, TV, and other forms of media, and how to detect bias. In the end, however, it’s up to each of us to be skeptical of what we see online. For starters, if a story doesn’t seem quite right or appears too good to be true, investigate it. Spend a few minutes researching the headline, the author, the sources, and the website it came from. And if you suspect a story might be false, don’t share it on social media. “It’s our responsibility to stop the spread of fake news,” says Jonathan Anzalone, the assistant director of the Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University in New York. “We need to be committed to seeking out the truth.” ♦ W r i t e A b o u t It ! Why is fake news a major problem? What can people do about it? Make sure to cite evidence from the text in your response. H o w t o S p o t a F a ls e S t o r y R e s e a r c h s h o w s t h a t m a n y m i d d l e s c h o o le r s c a n ’t t e l l t h e d i f f e r e n c e b e t w e e n a f a c t u a l s t o r y a n d a f a k e o n e . B u t d o n ’t w o r r y —w e ’ ll s h o w y o u h o w ! J u s t a s k y o u r s e l f t h e s e q u e s t io n s

28. . W HO ’S BEHIND THE ARTICLE? S t a r t b y r e s e a r c h in g t h e a u th o r o f t h e s to r y a n d t h e w e b s it e it c a m e f r o m . D o e s t h e w r it e r o r s ite o f t e n p u b lis h s to r ie s m a k in g o u tla n d is h c la im s ? A ls o , lo o k a t t h e U R L its e lf. S ite s e n d in g in .c o m .c o o f t e n c a n ’t b e t r u s te d . WHAT’S THE EVIDENCE? E v a lu a te w h e t h e r t h e w r it e r has b a c k e d u p his o r h e r c la im s w ith v a lid re a s o n s a n d fa c ts . W h a t s o u rc e s d o e s t h e a u t h o r c i t e — a n d a r e t h e y trustworthy? Does th e w r it e r q u o te e x p e r ts q u a lifie d t o c o m m e n t o n t h e t o p ic ? WHAT DO OTHER

29. SOURCES SAY? C o n d u c t r e s e a r c h t o f in d o u t w h e t h e r r e s p e c te d n e w s o u tle ts h a v e p u b lis h e d t h e s a m e in f o r m a t io n . O r t r y t o v e r if y the story on a fact-checking w e b s it e , such as P o lit iF a c t .c o m o r F a c tC h e c k .o r g . 16 SEPTEMBER 23, 2019 Copyright of Junior Scholastic is the property of Scholastic Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. DOI: 10.2501/JAR-2019-007 March 2019 JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING RESEARCH 3 INTRODUCTION We all likely have heard at least a few of these “stories.” Hillary Clinton ran an underground

30. child-trafficking ring out of a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant. Bottles of Corona beer were tain- ted with urine. Pope Francis endorsed Donald Trump as a presidential candidate. Tommy Hilfiger told Oprah that he didn’t want African Americans or Asians wearing his clothes. Parkland shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez tore in half the Constitu- tion of the United States. Conspiracy theories, hoaxes, urban myths, and deceptive stories are certainly nothing new. What has changed, however, is the ability to disguise these theories and stories as “news,” which then spreads virally across social and digital media with unparalleled ease and speed. Digitization allows such “fake news” to propagate more rapidly than it ever has before, first from publishers to consumers and subsequently from consumers to each other. Commenting on a recent wave of press in the United Kingdom that misinterpreted genetic research on the red hair allele by observing that redheads would become extinct because of global warming, geneticist Adam Rutherford summar- ized the rapid diffusion of false-news stories in our modern times: “A fiction can fly around the world before the truth has managed to pick the sleep from its eyes in the morning” (Rutherford, 2017, p. 184). Scholars increasingly are paying attention to the fake-news phenomenon to define it and assess its explosion across traditional and digital channels. They have discovered a complex web connecting fake news with advertising, motivated by financial

31. interests (i.e., advertising dollars) and propelled by the programmatic-advertising process. The Fake-News Explosion Researchers have defined fake news as fabricated information that mimics news media content in form but not in organizational process or intent (Lazer, Baum, Benkler, Berinsky, et al., 2018). Fake news is false news, and as an object of study should The Relationship between Fake News And Advertising Brand Management in the Era Of Programmatic Advertising and Prolific Falsehood ADAM J. MILLS loyola University new Orleans [email protected] CHRISTINE PITT Royal Institute of technology (Kth), Sweden [email protected] SARAH LORD FERGUSON Simon Fraser University, Canada [email protected] Speaker’s Box

32. Editor’s Note “Speaker’s Box” invites academics and practitioners to identify significant areas of research affecting advertising and marketing. The goal is to bridge the gap between the length of time it takes to produce rigorous work and the acceleration of change within practice. This edition addresses the relatively new phenomenon of “fake news” and its complicated relationship with advertising. The authors highlight that advertising and fake news appear to be locked in a growth cycle driven by financial incentives. Most concerning for brands is that, because online programmatic advertising has required advertisers to cede control over where their advertisements are displayed, many brands inevitably will find their advertisements on fake-news websites alongside controversial and inflammatory content. Beyond the ethical dilemma for brands is the potential loss of credibility. For established brands, the situation is less dire, however, and, there may be room for a higher service option that gives advertisers tighter control over the display of their advertisements. Douglas C. West Professor of Marketing, King’s College London Contributing Editor, Journal of Advertising Research 4 JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING RESEARCH March 2019 thE RElAtIOnShIP BEtWEEn FAKE nEWS AnD ADVERtISIng not be confused with the political use of the term as a partisan, rejectionist label

33. for press coverage that does not support a particular political interest (Vosoughi, Roy, and Aral, 2018). Two factors are key to understanding the explosion of fake news: diffusion and generation. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology examined the diffusion of 126,000 news stories through 4.5 million shares by 3 million Twitter users over an 11-year period (Vosoughi et al., 2018). The researchers found that false-news stories diffused significantly further, faster, deeper, and more broadly than truthful new stories. This is because, overall, fake news is more novel and more affectively engaging than truthful news. Fake-news stories simply are more interesting to read, share, and talk about than truthful news stories (Vosoughi et al., 2018) Novelty is a strong attractor of human attention (Itti and Baldi, 2009). It is not difficult to imagine, for example, that the sexual indiscretions of a politician or celebrity would be more interesting and attractive to the average reader than a report on employment statistics or advances in health-care technology. Fake news, generally speaking, trig- gers more affectively charged emotional responses (cf. Ekman, 1992) than truthful news stories. Fake news elicits high-arousal emotional responses, such as

34. fear, disgust, and surprise, whereas truthful news stories lead to lower arousal emotional responses, such as sadness, joy, and anticipation (Vosoughi et al., 2018). Because both novelty and emotional arousal drive interest, which drives clicks, it follows that the more outrageous the story is, the better that piece of news performs as a market- place artifact. With respect to the generation of fake news, there are three possible drivers for the creation of disinformation: • Inadvertent disinformation is when “citizen journalism” leads to the creation of newslike content that is accidentally false or misleading because of a lack of rigor in reporting. The Internet effect- ively has removed barriers to entry for content creation and publishing and, consequently, the traditional safeguards of journalistic integrity (Tandoc, Lim, and Ling, 2018). • Ideological disinformation, what we might refer to as propaganda, is when fake news is created by individuals and organizations to promote particular ideas, advance certain agendas, stoke conspiracy, or discredit others (Allcott and Gentzkow, 2017). • Exploitative disinformation, in contrast, is motivated solely financially. The creation and distribution of false news for

35. mercenary purposes is worthy of deeper discussion here given its relationship to advertising. How Advertising Supports Fake News Fake news supports and is supported by advertising dollars. Opportunistic individuals and organizations are able to create professional-looking websites easily and cheaply. They populate those websites with novel, albeit bogus, news stories and then fill their pages with advertisements. Because online advertising is a numbers game, the more traffic these individuals can drive to their website, the more potential clicks they receive. Fake-news stories are the perfect “clickbait” to drive website traffic, because the emotional responses inspired by their headlines (surprise, fear, anger, anxi- ety, etc.) are exactly those that we find irresistible as information consumers (Gardiner, 2015). The more clickbait these owners can create, therefore, the more revenue they can earn from advertisement placement (Timberg, Dwoskin, and Ba Tran, 2018). Consider the small town of Veles, Mace- donia, home to dozens of individuals operating more than 100 fake-news websites in the period leading up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election (Soares and Davey-Attlee, 2017; Subramanian, 2017). Most of these fake-news websites looked

36. and sounded unassuming: PoliticsPaper. com, NewYorkTimesPolitics.com, USA- Politics.com, and PoliticsHall.com, to name a few. Each of these fake-news websites generated up to $2,500 per day in advertising revenue—impressive by any means, particularly when one considers that the average monthly income in Macedonia is $426 (Soares and Davey-Attlee, 2017). FAKE NEWS, BRANDS, AND PROGRAMMATIC ADVERTISING Although fake news may or may not ori- ginate with ideology, the primary driver behind the recent explosion of fake news online is advertising income. Taken together with the effects digitalization has had on the news industry, this has created the perfect storm for brands and advertising. What kinds of problems might this create for brands and advertising? Fake News and Advertising Encourage Each Other The first problem we must consider in the relationship between fake news and advertising is that they encourage each other. Fake news and advertising follow a cyclical pattern (cf. Berthon and Pitt, 2018) that snowballs as programmatic algorithms take hold. The pattern begins with the ease with which fake news is created. Just about anyone with an Internet connection can create and publish “news,” given the ease

37. of publishing through microsites and low barriers to entry for citizen journalism. Brands need to advertise on the web. Manual targeting does not work online as it does offline, so advertisers rely on March 2019 JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING RESEARCH 5 thE RElAtIOnShIP BEtWEEn FAKE nEWS AnD ADVERtISIng thEARF.ORg intermediaries and affiliate networks (e.g., Google Ads) for automated advertising distribution and placement, called “programmatic advertising.” Programmatic algorithms encourage chasing of traffic between online advertisements and websites, including fake-news sites. Here’s how the pattern evolves: • These intermediaries rely on algorithms that place advertisements on web pages in real time. Programmatic-advertising placement can work in one or both of two ways: prospecting and retargeting (Busch, 2015): ——With prospecting, the advertisements follow the clicks; intermediaries place advertisements on screen on the basis of text and keywords on the websites with the hope of generating new interest. ——With retargeting, the advertisements

38. follow the users; intermediaries place advertisements on screen on the basis of the particular website viewer, essentially following a specific user from site to site. • Programmatic advertising means that ultimately the advertisements chase the traffic. It thus is financially rewarding for website owners to drive as much traffic as possible to as many pages as possible. Fake-news websites are incentivized by this model to create greater volumes of more novel content, which drives more traffic. Exclusive of the influence of social media, this brings us back to the beginning of the cycle. That said, however, there are several additional factors to consider: • Fake-news website owners seed content links through social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to drive traffic back to their own sites. Content is seeded either into existing groups or through promoted or sponsored placement to ensure visibility. • Social-media websites become a qua- ternary agent in the financial-incentive mix, because these platforms generate revenue directly off promoted or sponsored content. In the wake of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, many

39. social-media websites faced such widespread public criticism over their com- plicity in spreading and profiting from fake news that they introduced policies to ban fake news by vetting prospect- ive publishers more closely (Wingfield, Isaac, and Benner, 2016). • Even with policies in place banning fake news from their websites, social-media platforms continue to profit indir- ectly from the spread of fake news organically through their ecosystem. Because fake news is interesting and eye-catching, it keeps users on social platforms for longer periods of time, which subsequently increases exposure and attractiveness to other advertisers. Advertisers Have Ceded Control Of Media Placement A second problem is that advertisers, to a large extent, have relinquished certain elements of brand management with respect to online advertising channels. The trade-off comes with advertisers being able to control precisely either where their advertisement is displayed or to whom it is displayed, but not both. With traditional media channels, advertisers manage where and how their brands are exposed to consumers. The higher the stakes are and the more critical the placement is, the greater is the price of the advertising. A 30-second television

40. advertisement during the 2018 Super Bowl, for example, cost roughly $5 million (Michaels, 2018). Even with such high stakes and tightly controlled media buys, however, the recip- ient audience is largely incidental and only can be approximated. Advertisers do their best to find out where and when their target customers will be, place the advertisement, and hope for the best. Digital advertising, conversely, works very much in the opposite manner. It allows brands to target their viewership with extraordinary precision, quite literally down to the individual unique user. Never before have advertisers had such remarkable ability to reach consumers so meaningfully, but what must be exchanged is the ability to tightly control where and how the advertisements are seen. As a result, marketers rely on interme- diates and affiliate networks that match advertisers with pages on which to display their advertisements, using extraordinar- ily efficient real-time software algorithms. Programmatic advertising is highly efficient, extremely cost-effective, virtually immediate, and designed almost completely around reaching the individual target consumer. To target in this manner, however, prioritizing consumers over context, advertisers must cede almost all control over advertisement placement to the

41. intermediaries. Never before have advertisers had such remarkable ability to reach consumers so meaningfully, but what must be exchanged is the ability to tightly control where and how the advertisements are seen. 6 JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING RESEARCH March 2019 thE RElAtIOnShIP BEtWEEn FAKE nEWS AnD ADVERtISIng Fake News Jeopardizes Brand Integrity The ultimate problem for brands, from a reputational-capital and brand-equity perspective, is that fake news easily can cross the ethical line between entertainment and insidiousness. Fake-news stories and websites regularly contain content that most would consider inflammatory, sensational, or controversial, because these things draw traffic. The predicament for brands is that their advertisements can and will end up on pages containing controversial content. This is what critically distinguishes fake news from traditional journalism: Conven- tional news publishers report on negative stories, but their intentions in doing so— informing and educating—should not be ethically ambiguous. For advertisers, being associated with

42. contentious content that is at odds with brand values therefore is problematic, and this is where the highly efficient programmatic-advertising system seems callous in its rationality. Fake news can become a threat to reputational capital and brand equity when brands are associated with and seen as financially subsidizing these types of unethical websites. A recent investigation by The Washing- ton Post found advertisements for many large brands, including Oracle, eBay, Mercedes-Benz, Jeep, Samsung, UNICEF, and Harvard Business School, on fake- news websites. Girl Scouts advertisements were embedded in articles about jihadi sex crimes, advertisements for the American Red Cross were displayed alongside a comparison of school-shooting victims with Nazi symbolism, and advertisements for Hertz rental cars appeared next to an article titled “Are Liberal Pervs Sexu- ally Obsessed with Refugees?” (Timberg et al., 2018). Social-media platforms and advertising intermediaries have joined forces in recent years to ban from the ecosystem websites that contain such extreme content as hate speech, bullying, harassment, or any- thing objectively dangerous or derogatory (Seetharaman, 2016; Timberg et al., 2018; Wingfield et al., 2016). As the above exam- ples highlight, however, trying to avoid

43. these types of websites is easier said than done, because an overwhelming majority of fake news lies in the proverbial gray area just below these obvious extremes. Brands should care about exposure on fake-news websites for a host of ethical reasons, but the problem is more than just a moral one. “Advertismement–context congruity” is the degree to which an advertisement is thematically similar to the informational focus or editorial content of the website on which that advertisement is displayed (Moore, Stammerjohan, and Coulter, 2005; Zanjani, Diamond, and Chan, 2011). Incongruity between an advertisement and its context draws attention and creates novelty (Belanche, Fla- vián, and Pérez-Rueda, 2017). This can be problematic when it comes to fake-news websites because advertisements that are seen as contextually incongruent generate less-favorable responses and are evaluated less favorably than contextually relevant advertisements (Jeong and King, 2010; Moore et al., 2005; Segev, Wang, and Fer- nandes, 2014). Because most brands prefer to occupy relatively noncontroversial and positive positions, the more controversial the fake-news website is, the less favorably the brand’s advertising on that site will be received. This effect is magnified when viewers have high levels of involvement with the website content (Segev et al.,

44. 2014), as is the case with most fake news. Even more unfortunate for brands is that incongruent advertisements are more memorable than those that are contextually congruent (Jeong and King, 2010; Moore et al., 2005). The net result is that consumers more likely will evaluate brand advertising on fake-news websites negatively and more likely will have those negative evalua- tions stay in memory. In a confluence of unfortunate effects, what is additionally troubling is that website credibility does not appear to have a significant influence on consumers’ attitude toward the brands being advertised (Choi and Rifon, 2002). In other words, consumers do not give brands a “pass” for being found on less- than-credible fake-news websites. FAKE NEWS AND THE FUTURE FOR BRANDS One of the silver linings is that our current programmatic-advertising system is both effective and incredibly efficient. Most websites are well intentioned, and the out- liers are relatively few in number, despite the hype. We spend more time talking about fake-news sites for the same reasons we click on fake-news headlines: They are novel, interesting, and perplexing, and we want to know more. What’s more, customers are custom-

45. ers, regardless of what they read or click. We cannot fault the algorithms for being efficient, nor can we fault individual customers or website viewers for having particular worldviews or interests in certain types of content. Whether or not someone believes that vaccines work, that person still needs clothing and groceries. Whether Advertisements that are seen as contextually incongruent generate less-favorable responses and are evaluated less favorably than contextually relevant advertisements. March 2019 JOURNAL OF ADVERTISING RESEARCH 7 thE RElAtIOnShIP BEtWEEn FAKE nEWS AnD ADVERtISIng thEARF.ORg or not someone is worried that redheads will become extinct, he or she still needs car insurance and a vacation. The discussion of fake news, however, highlights that brand advertisers have a need for subjectivity in online advertising placement and distribution that our current programmatic system does not accommodate sufficiently. There may be room, in fact, for a new category of “intelligent” intermedi- ary to enter into the digital advertising space. In the online advertising business,

46. there appears to be an unmet need for a higher service option for advertisers to have a tighter control over when, where, how, and to whom their advertisements are displayed. In the meantime, encouraging for larger organizations is that the more established the brand is, the less the advertiser needs to worry about critical reputational damage due to advertisement–context incongruity. Research suggests that the credibility of the brand being advertised can override, to some extent, the lack of credibility of the website on which it is displayed (Choi and Rifon, 2002). For smaller, newer brands still building equity, however, it is even more critical that the websites on which they advertise be seen as credible. Although it likely is impossible to bring brand control back to the levels of traditional media advertising, more bespoke digital-campaign management very well could move in this direction. JPMorgan Chase in 2017 overhauled its online advertising approach in response to fake-news brand risk by shifting its strategy to whitelist only. The company manually preapproved 5,000 on-brand websites, down from a previous 400,000 (Mahesh- wari, 2017). Similar efforts going forward will involve more manual placement and human endeavor, but the returns would be worthwhile to brands concerned about reputational capital.

47. ABOUt thE AUthORS: Adam J. Mills is an assistant professor of marketing at Loyola university New Orleans. His research focuses on brand-experience engineering and brand storytelling. Mills’s research has appeared in Marketing Theory, Journal of Business Research, Business Horizons, Service Industries Journal, Journal of Marketing Education, and other publications. prior to entering academia, Mills worked in corporate marketing and brand and operations management for the hospitality industry. Christine Pitt is a doctoral candidate at Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). Her research specialization is in automated text analysis. Her work can be found in Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Business Research, and Journal of Public Affairs. Sarah lord Ferguson is a doctoral student at Canada’s Simon Fraser university specialized in

48. research on health care marketing. Her research is published in Academy of Marketing Science Review, Business Horizons, and Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing. REFEREnCES Allcott, H., and M. Gentzkow. “Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 31, 2 (2017): 211–236. Belanche, D., C. Flavián, and A. Pérez-Rueda. “Understanding Interactive Online Advertising: Congruence and Product Involvement in Highly and Lowly Arousing, Skippable Video Ads.” Journal of Interactive Marketing 37, C (2017): 75–88. Berthon, P. R., and L. F. Pitt. “Brands, Truthi- ness and Post-Fact: Managing Brands in a Post-Rational World.” Journal of Macromarketing 38, 2 (2018): 218–227.

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52. Segev, S., W. Wang, and J. Fernandes. “The Effects of Ad-Context Congruency on Responses to Advertising in Blogs.” Interna- tional Journal of Advertising 33, 1 (2014): 17–36. Soares, I., and F. Davey-Attlee. (2017, September 13). “The Fake News Machine: Inside a Town Gearing up for 2020.” Retrieved from CNN’s website: https://money.cnn.com/ interactive/media/the-macedonia-story Subramanian, S. “Inside the Macedonian Fake-News Complex.” Wired, February 15, 2017. Retrieved from https://www.wired. com/2017/02/veles-macedonia-fake-news Tandoc, E. C., Jr., Z. W. Lim, and R. Ling. “Defining Fake News: A Typology of Schol- arly Definitions.” Digital Journalism 6, 2 (2018) 137–153. Timberg, C., E. Dwoskin, and A. Ba Tran.

53. “Mainstream Advertising Is Still Showing up on Polarizing and Misleading Sites— Despite Efforts to Stop It.” The Washington Post, October 3, 2018. Retrieved from https:// www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/ads-from-mainstream-businesses-are-s till-showing-up-on-extremist-sites--desp ite-efforts-to-stop-it/2018/10/03/6932974e-c326- 11e8-8f06-009b39c3f6dd_story.html Vosoughi, S., D. Roy, and S. Aral. “The Spread of True and False News Online.” Science 359, 6380 (2018): 1146–1151. Wingfield, N., M. Isaac, and K. Benner. “Google and Facebook Take Aim at Fake News Sites.” The New York Times, November 14, 2016. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes. com/2016/11/15/technology/google-will-ba n-websites-that-host-fake-news-from-using-

54. its-ad-service.html Zanjani, S. H. A., W. D. Diamond, and K. Chan. “Does Ad-Context Congruity Help Surfers and Information Seekers Remember Ads in Cluttered E-Magazines?” Journal of Advertising 40, 4 (2011): 67–84. Copyright of Journal of Advertising Research is the property of Warc LTD and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. Abstract In a continually changing global political environment, fake news has become a widely debated topic by both researchers and ordinary people. Despite the relevance and the diversity of approaches, few studies have focused on the typology of fake news in specialised scientific literature, while proper assessment methods and detection techniques are not well- established yet. This paper addresses the com-

55. plex concept of fake news, presenting its significance and highlighting its different types, from propaganda to news satire; the moderators of the fake news effects and the ways to counter disinformation. This exploratory study reveals that solutions to combat the phenomenon exist, but they focus more on effects rather than on causes, leaving space open for further research. Keywords: fake news, disinformation, moderators of fake news effects, media trust, public trust Introduction In a world of constant change, information plays a crucial role. Information explosion is a recent phenomenon determined by increased information production and by improved access and exposure to it (Abbott, 1999). As more and more of the world’s information moves online and becomes digitised, information becomes accessible to anyone, anywhere with little restrictions related to time, costs, language or geography. In a digital society, people from different parts of the worlds can communicate in seconds. Moreover, using social media platforms, anyone can transmit and promote different kinds of data to a specific audience. All the facts mentioned above, along with the continuous evolution of technology (artifi- cial intelligence taking over different types of communication) led to permanent worldwide information exchange, to which people are addicted. Whether talking about information on

56. friends, family or directly on the news and what is happening ‘out there’, people always feel the urge to refresh the flow of data. The news is that part of communication that keeps peo- Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations vol. 21, no 2 (47) / July 2019, 41-57 ISSN: 1454-8100/ E-ISSN: 2344-5440 Alexandru-Cristian DUMITRACHE* Shades of Fake News: Manifestation, Effects and Ways to Combat False Information * National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (Romania), [email protected] Revista_comunicare_47.qxd 9/30/2019 10:02 AM Page 41 ple informed of the changing events, issues, and characters in the world outside (Dean, 2013). The news media also functions as an indirect source of knowledge about one’s epistemic community (Gelfert, 2018). Many people follow daily news and the main problem addressed is related to the news consumers ability to distinguish between the real and potentially false information provided as “the selection of topics must have sufficiently broad appeal” (Gelfert, 2018, p. 89). In this respect, it is difficult to recognize if information delivered by news media is accurate and the

57. actual potential effect of the spread of false information on people are yet to be discussed. Despite many attempts to define and characterize the fake news phenomenon by journalists, commentators or scholars, a clear distinction between multiple forms or types of public disinformation has not been achieved to date. Additionally, the academic literature on the ‘fake news’ topic lacks in presenting a concrete typology of the concept (for exceptions see Tandoc et al. (2018), Wardle (2017)). Therefore, this paper tries to explain the phenomenon of ‘fake news’ presenting its shades and sides as well as the ways it can manifest, while discussing its possible effects on specific audiences and ways through which it can be combated. The roots of a globally spread phenomenon False news is written and published with the intention of misleading people, for different purposes: from doubting or tarnishing the reputation of institutions or individuals to divert- ing attention from an event or getting advertising revenue. Although the spread of false information or rumours seems to date back to ancient times, serving mainly political interests, these practices have expanded at various scales after the emergence of newspapers and journalism. In the 19th century in the USA, Erwin Wardman, the editor of New York Press, used for the first time the term ‘yellow journalism’, describing a model of journalism that presents not very

58. well documented news and relies on attractive titles to sell more newspapers (Vivian, 2002). The consequences of this type of sensational journalism practised in the USA have been long time subject of debate for American historians, newspaper propaganda on the Cuban crisis being considered a triggering factor for the Spanish-American war, 1895-1898 (Auxier, 1940). While the yellow journalism of the 1890s and tabloid journalism of 1920-1930 have led to many criticisms and even to the stigmatisation of the press, the need for establishing norms and adopting a code of ethics becomes increasingly obvious (Gajda, 2009). The ‘Code of ethics for the Newspapers’, adopted by the Kansas Editorial Association in 1910 have established for the first time standards, regulations and responsibilities for journalists (Hill, 1922). The changed attitude of public and court towards the press has contributed in a way to the rise of real news, generally increasing the accuracy and responsibility of the written media and particularly increasing the credibility of notable newspapers. Although diffusion of false news is not new, the proliferation of this phenomenon is closely associated with the Internet, and the development of high- tech platforms followed by the migration of media business almost entirely to the online world. These changes brought back again the issue of false or exaggerated news, produced and distributed this time ‘on-clicking’. The term ‘fake news’ has been around since the 19th century,

59. but its popularity started to grow in 2016, along with two key events in the near history: the Leave vote for Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States of America (Bârgãoanu, 2018). 42 Revista românã de comunicare ºi relaþii publice Revista_comunicare_47.qxd 9/30/2019 10:02 AM Page 42 These events highlighted the increasing power of new communication channels while traditional media continues to lose both influence and money (Newman, 2017). Presently, despite the existing precedents and similarities in mass-media history, these new challenges related to fake news are becoming much more difficult to overcome. Social media users are assaulted by fake news; however, few studies are focussing on the structure of social media networks and how the presence of fake news might affect the degree of misinformation and polarisation in a society (Azzimonti & Fernandes, 2018). The Internet has changed the global framework in such a way that ordinary people now understand terminologies such as fake news, echo chambers, like factories, social bots, troll diplomacy or filter bubbles (Bârgãoanu & Radu, 2018). The misinformation diffusion network and its foremost purveyors are challenging to con-

60. trol: massive amounts of fake news have spread over social media before and after the 2016 US Presidential Elections, despite intense fact-checking efforts (Shao et al., 2018). Individ- uals, with different social characteristics, much more frequently mention the term ‘fakes news’ public debates about their effects taking place everywhere. Even news agencies themselves started discussing the concept of ‘fake news’ and its consequences, often even arguing and pointing the finger at each other with accusations of false information production. As an example, articles concerning the topic of fake news are often published in the international edition of the ‘New York Times’ newspaper or in issues of the ‘TIME’ magazine. The so-called ‘consequences’ of fake news are starting to appear all over the world and different kinds of measures are taken to combat the situation: in Germany, for example, An- gela Merkel’s cabinet voted a law proposal that would fine social networks with up to 50 million euros for failing to remove what could be defined as ‘fake news’ (Cuthbertson, 2017); in Indonesia, the communications minister wants to hold weekly news briefings, with the goal of countering fake news (Meixler, 2018). In France, President Emmanuel Macron also tried to find legal solutions against fake news, even though trying to separate truth from fiction from a legislative point of view was seen as a way to strengthen censorship (Alouane, 2018). ‘BuzzFeed News’ even made an analysis which showed that, during the presidential campaign in the United States in 2016, news categorized as fake

61. generated more engagement, in the last three months prior to the election, than so-called ‘trustworthy’ news publications such as ‘Washington Post’ or ‘NBC News’ (Silverman, 2016). According to 2018’s Reuters Institute Digital News Report, ordinary people started raising questions about fake news in a different way than the previous year, as politicians and press representatives use the term much more often. However, even though people are worried about fake news, they encounter difficulties when it comes to pointing out a proper example of what is fake news (Newman, Fletcher, Kalogeropoulos, Levy, & Kleis Nielsen, 2018). Many studies claim that ‘fake news’ has been around since forever, but the question is how this concept changed in nature during the last years. Press agencies (and especially partisan press) have frequently published and distributed articles that contain incomplete or false information. On the other hand, ‘fake news’ can no longer be analysed as something that only regards the press, since the social context is one where the media continually change and new ecosystems of news appear, with the help of the Internet (McGonagle, 2017). However, ‘fake news’ managed to become a wide debated concept during what many researchers use to call the ‘post-truth’ era (Keyes, 2004). This era could be a consequence of a few powerful trends, among the global population, that can be developed or that could be

62. Shades of Fake News: Manifestation, Effects and Ways to Combat False Information 43 Revista_comunicare_47.qxd 9/30/2019 10:02 AM Page 43 linked to different extremist or radical political movements, which can better rely on ideology, instead of concrete evidence (Lewandowsky, Ecker, & Cook, 2017). ‘Fake news’ became a powerful concept because the topic itself has roots in this post-truth era, which has been built on strong pillars. Firstly, one of the main reasons for the development of this era is the decrease of social capital. Studies have shown that, since 1970, especially in the United States of America, factors like goodwill, trust in public institutions, empathy and even the willingness of someone to share a secret with anyone else, have decreased con- siderably. Another strong pillar on which the post-truth era is based refers to increasing in- equalities between people, which has driven the masses to have different strong attitudes according to their living standard. Also, another factor can be the constantly increasing political polarisation, some studies describe how people tend to relocate themselves in communi- ties that share, more or less, the same ideologies. Likewise, other causes for this era to develop can also be the declining trust in science and the politically asymmetric credulity, which refers to the fact that someone’s susceptibility to misinformation can be related to that person’s po-

63. litical orientation. Without any doubt, the strongest pillar of the post-truth era is the evolution of the media landscape. This factor changed significantly during the last years, which could be explained in various ways: first of all, social media created the ‘echo chambers’, where the information is distributed according to the user’s opinions and beliefs. Second, the development of new media also favoured a wider range of choices regarding the information that can be consumed, which provided a safe environment for the spread of biased opinions. More- over, people can now talk over the Internet even though there are vast distances between them. This factor contributes to impoliteness which, afterwards, favours a stronger division between those with different opinions. Lastly, the fact that the media are fractioned allows strategic ex- tremism to be engaged by different personalities (Lewandowsky et al., 2017). Therefore, it seems that one of the means that permitted the development of fake news can undoubtedly be the evolution of the social media platforms, within which anyone can create shareable content and transmit it to huge audiences (Tarran, 2017). As an example, with the help of a website, of social media platforms and with many fake written reviews, someone managed to get a restaurant to be ‘number one’ on the TripAdvisor rankings in London, even though that restaurant does not exist, and no one visited it. The hoax was strongly me- diatised on the internet afterwards, being an example of how people can be influenced by good public relations (Butler & Clifton, 2017).

64. In other words, some of the changes that made people perceive fake news in a stronger way were based on the fact that fake news can be produced in a very sophisticated manner, at a large scale and with incredible rapidity and effectiveness. Technology made it possible for almost anyone to create and distribute such content in many possible forms, such as texts, photos, videos, memes, etc. (McGonagle, 2017). The new technologies are not only contributing to the development of fake news, but they can also help with their propagation. The spread of false news was frequently compared to the transmission of infectious diseases. An interesting fact to notice is that viruses, exactly like rumours, need a host and dense population to spread and that opinions, like certain diseases, form on social contacts. In this regard, it seems that studying the ways that this transmission of infectious illnesses takes place can provide data on how misinformation is distributed among the population (Kucharski, 2016). However, mass-media are the most affected by the phenomenon of fake news. Whether the media is accused of creating it or it has to suffer from the concept itself, people’s trust in 44 Revista românã de comunicare ºi relaþii publice Revista_comunicare_47.qxd 9/30/2019 10:02 AM Page 44

65. mass-media has certainly decreased over the last years. A raft of initiatives over so called ‘fake news’ from both publishers and platforms fail to restore public trust (Newman, 2017). As an example, the Edelman PR Agency investigates population’s level of trust in different institutions around the world. This agency has set up the Edelman Trust Barometer, a sur- vey aiming to asses the level of confidence that the population of a country has on various topics or institutions such as the Government, the business environment, the NGOs or the mass-media and how this level changed over time. According to this research, which addressed over 33,000 respondents, the level of trust in mass media decreased worldwide, within almost all the analysed countries, the latest values dropping below 50% (Table 1). As well, results highlighted the divergence in trust between the informed public and mass population, while both parties share an urgent desire for change. (Edelman, 2018) Shades of Fake News: Manifestation, Effects and Ways to Combat False Information 45 Revista_comunicare_47.qxd 9/30/2019 10:02 AM Page 45 Table 1. Countries’ level of trust in mass-media. Source: 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer. These findings are consistent with other studies which point out

66. that people are starting to wonder what is fake and real in the news. This aspect is more visible in countries such as the United States or Brazil, where the use of social media is mixed with political polarised situations, rather than in countries like the Netherlands or Germany (Newman et al., 2018). 46 Revista românã de comunicare ºi relaþii publice 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Argentina 47% 50% 49% 45% 53% 40% 39% Australia 33% 32% 36% 34% 42% 32% 31% Brazil 52% 55% 50% 51% 54% 48% 43% Canada 50% 53% 57% 52% 55% 45% 49% China 73% 71% 68% 64% 73% 65% 71% Columbia 55% 45% 43% France 37% 40% 37% 39% 38% 33% 33% Germany 39% 51% 51% 45% 44% 42% 42% Hong Kong 54% 55% 55% 50% 47% 42% 43% India 60% 70% 64% 70% 63% 66% 61% Indonesia 68% 73% 69% 68% 63% 67% 68% Ireland 35% 34% 36% 31% 39% 29% 33%

67. Italy 50% 45% 43% 41% 50% 48% 45% Japan 33% 34% 38% 30% 38% 32% 32% Malaysia 46% 58% 51% 46% 45% 42% 47% Mexico 56% 57% 53% 48% 58% 47% 48% Netherland 53% 52% 55% 54% 55% 54% 55% Poland 40% 38% 35% 38% 34% 31% 34% Russia 32% 33% 33% 42% 38% 31% 35% Singapore 61% 62% 60% 55% 60% 54% 52% South Africa 45% 41% 45% 39% 35% South Korea 42% 47% 44% 41% 43% 40% 40% Spain 43% 43% 42% 42% 49% 44% 44% Sweden 30% 36% 34% 28% 31% 33% 32% Turkey 28% 19% 18% 23% 25% 30% U.A.E. 51% 58% 59% 62% 59% 44% 56% United Kingdom 32% 36% 37% 33% 36% 32% 32% S.U.A. 37% 38% 35% 39% 47% 47% 42% Revista_comunicare_47.qxd 9/30/2019 10:02 AM Page 46

68. Defining fake news and its shades Recent studies which are focussing on this topic attempt to define and clarify the concept (Gelfert, 2018). However, there is no consensus yet on a generally accepted definition of ‘fake news’. Many researchers used this term in their papers outlining the differences between fake news and false news or disinformation, but the conclusion that comes out is that the concept has many shades and could be defined from several perspectives. An analysis of the articles that investigate the fake news (Figure 1) concluded that the phenomenon is cir- cumscribed to six different forms of manifestation, more precisely: propaganda, news satire, news parody, news fabrication, photo manipulation and advertising, and public relations (Tan- doc, Lim, & Ling, 2018). Figure 1. Typology of fake news, according to Tandoc et al. (2018). Despite some similarities, most of the authors agree that fake news is different from propaganda. Fake news refers to different kinds of information presented as authentic but, in reality, they are only partially real or are exaggerated to the point that they become false. Furthermore, the purpose of fake news is to mislead or to deceive a particular public, and its structure is fluid and adaptative. Thus, it can consist of information that is real but is presented in such a way that the overall information is fake, or the text can be accompanied by pic- tures that have no actual relationship with the narrative

69. presented. Propaganda, on the other hand, can be described in two different ways: one type of propaganda is the transparent one, where both its intentions and its source are made public and its purpose connects to influence a target audience in a positive manner. The other kind of propaganda refers the one that hides its source and motives, and that is targeted to an audience which is not aware of the fact that it is manipulated (Reilly, 2018). Up until this point, propaganda could seem similar to ‘fake news’. The difference is that the latter became so strong because its transmission is not necessarily facilitated by state- controlled media agencies or by governments or by certain media organisations, they can be redistributed by simple individuals using the Internet and social media, even without them realising it (Reilly, 2018). However, the substantial similarity between propaganda and fake Shades of Fake News: Manifestation, Effects and Ways to Combat False Information 47 Revista_comunicare_47.qxd 9/30/2019 10:02 AM Page 47 news is that both are based on facts which are promoted as objective but are presented only from one side or perspective, with the purpose of persuading the targeted audience, rather than informing it (Tandoc et al., 2018). On the other hand, the ‘News’ format of television programs is

70. widely used at an international level, making it also one of the most parodied types of content. This phenomenon is globally enlarging, but little is still known about the causes of its occurrence in various countries with different cultures, traditions or political systems (Baym & Jones, 2012). However, even if some researchers consider the term can be an umbrella that can cover many aspects, the concept of news satire is different from news parodies. News satire represents a widespread form of fake news, because it uses types of humour and many exaggerations to present actual news. A good example of TV shows that use this form of content is the Comedy Central show or The Daily Show. News satire programs and tv-shows are based on the presentation of current information displayed in a way that generates laughter among its audiences. These shows are embodied in the context of an actual news bulletin, with a frontman sitting behind a desk; the difference is that the anchor is not presented as a journalist or as an investigator but as an entertainer or a comedian (Tandoc et al., 2018). The key element involved in the production and distribution of news satires is its influences on the targeted audience. Some studies have shown that the opinions and beliefs of particularly younger publics can be influenced and even changed by this kind of shows. It seems that college students that watch news satire TV shows are more likely to have negative attitudes towards specific political personalities. Also, studies have shown that individuals without an active interest in politics or news information developed a specific curiosity on different

71. subjects debated on the public agenda after viewing those particular topics presented on news satire TV shows. This kind of shows is considered by certain audiences to have the role of simplifying the news from the public agenda and reformulate them in such a way that they become understandable to everyone (Brewer, Young, & Morreale, 2013). However, Balmas (2014) considers satirical content as one of the forerunners of fake news, describing it as a way to emphasize the negative aspects of the political events of the day, in a humorous way, portraying political figures as egotistical, phoneys or incompetents. Note- worthy is that his study shows how the exposure to such content can potentially influence its viewers attitude towards the political agenda or various party men. Similar to the news satires, news parodies represent another form of fake news. The latter can take many different forms: “from faux news anchors who posture authoritatively at pretend news desks, to puppet shows, sketch comedies, and panel discussions” (Baym & Jones, 2012, p. 4). However, news parodies hold a strong likeliness to the news satires because the information presented in it has the same use of humour and exaggeration. Also, when providing specific data to an audience, the shows make use of the same type of format as the actual TV news bulletins, with a frontman that sits behind a desk while presenting what is new.

72. A key element that makes news parodies different from news satires is the fact that parodies use facts and information that is already false, when trying to induce humour to its audiences. News satires have their starting point on something that is true, only for the data to be changed afterwards into something that is only partially correct, with the help of humour and exaggerations (Tandoc et al., 2018). An interesting example of a news parodies website can be The Onion which, with the use of a nicely built web architecture and a carefully written content, has sometimes passed in the minds of specific publics as an actual truthful news 48 Revista românã de comunicare ºi relaþii publice Revista_comunicare_47.qxd 9/30/2019 10:02 AM Page 48 website. This kind of fake news detains a particular type of strength due to their capacity to be seen as presented by a variety of journalists that can hold accountable other common journalists. They come on top in the process of news sharing, since regular media agencies transmit particular information and news parodies websites take that information and turn it into something different in a humorous way, while denigrating the image of specific journalist and media organisations (Berkowitz & Schwartz, 2016). Furthermore, news parodies and news satires are around for a longer while than the emerg-

73. ing of Saturday Night Live type of TV shows. This content dates back to the occurrence of comic commentary on the radio. On television, however, this genre became popular around 1960’, when shows like That Was The Week That Was or This Hour Has Seven Days aired, with content having an interesting blend between satirical content and actual news reportages (Day & Thompson, 2012). Nonetheless, this type of humorous content is appealing especially to younger audiences, half of the target group that fancy this programming genre being under 30 years old. Thus, some researchers have come to the conclusion that such content can strongly influence young adults into having lower levels of trust in Government (Hoffman & Young, 2011). Another way through which fake news can be operationalized is the process of news fabrication. Fabricated news is different from news satires and news parodies due to its method of presenting false information as a truthful press agency does. However, the substantial difference between fabricated news and news parodies is that between the latter and its audience there is, frequently, a silent agreement upon the fact that the presented information is fake, and its only purpose is fun. Fabricated news, on the other hand, has only one goal which is to misinform its publics (Tandoc et al., 2018). For a stronger outcome, fabricated news websites often use web domains which sound similar to the ones owned by certain real media agencies and present fake news as it would be documented and real information posted

74. by that particular media organisation. However, it seems that this kind of websites have a short lifespan. As an example, more than a hundred sites for fabricating news which were extremely active during the United States of America 2016 Elections no longer exist (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017). The US 2016’s Elections sparked a global conversation among researchers on the topic of news fabrication and its impact on the electoral action plans. However, studies have shown that fabricated content does not resonate well with audiences and it is not addressed to everyone. Even though it is used for various political reasons, its purpose is not to convert people of a certain political orientation to another or to influence undecided individuals to choosing a side, but to strengthen the passions of already partisan audience groups (Mourão & Robertson, 2019). Fake news can also manifest through the false narratives created by the manipulation of specific visuals and videos. Controversy around this topic is not new and photography ma- nipulations containing text additions or modifications are something relatively easy to make, in a way that looks authentic. That is one of the reasons many researchers leaned over this situation and studied the ways in which a photo can be determined to be fake or not, by analysing if newly added content to a picture violates the precise rules of perspective projec- tion (Conotter, Boato, & Farid, 2010). The techniques and methods used in the process, on the other hand, widely vary, starting

75. from simple modifications like the tone or the saturation and colours of a picture to editing it to the point where certain individuals appear or disappear from the photo. This type of fake news scattered quickly since the software for creating such visual modifications is available Shades of Fake News: Manifestation, Effects and Ways to Combat False Information 49 Revista_comunicare_47.qxd 9/30/2019 10:02 AM Page 49 to almost anyone (Tandoc et al., 2018). This technique, however, can also be used different- ly: a photo or a video that is indeed authentic can be accompanied by a narrative text that also consists of accurate information, but has no actual relationship with the visual support that is used. This method is not only used by media agencies, but it can also be accessed by non- journalists that have access to different audiences through social media. With the nowadays social media network’s algorithms, a text accompanied by a photo is better rated on the publics’ news feeds than a simple news article. However, even though computer generated visuals are highly popular and widely used in advertising, cinema or in the gaming or TV shows industry, when it comes to journalism, photographers and photo- reporters have to obey a set of strict rules that forbid the alteration of the visual content. On the other hand, technology in this field evolved at such a rapid pace, that even experts in this domain find it hard to distin-

76. guish between … Running Head: Fake News 1 FAKE NEWS 4 Fake News Stephanie Williams ENG/200: Rhetoric and Research 05/09/2020 My topic is fake news. My research question is, how can we protect ourselves from fake news? What are the three ways to solve this problem? In the article, YouTube's fake news problems are not going away by Shephard, 2018. It is a peer-reviewed article as databases allow to limit searches for items to peer-reviewed journals only. It addresses the issue of YouTube not being able to have a solution for false news circulation on its website. Sources- this is a reliable website; it has cited the source of information presented. The article talks about the Stoneman High school in Florida shooting being either a staged acting or was reality. The article talks about David Hogg, who was a

77. survivor and an activist for gun control, but a video suggests he was an actor. The article asks the questions of what YouTube officials, despite its announcement that it is working to curb the problem of fake news. My stand in the research question is that it is true that YouTube spreads fake news, but some of the information in there is true. It cannot all be blamed on YouTube officials but also the advancement of technology along with the invention of new applications that make it easy to Photoshop and filter items on a video or photo hence the distribution of fake news Fake News, Case Study from Social Media to Television of the Romanian Presidential Selections 2019. Authors: Sutu, Radica, 2019. This article is peer-reviewed. An expert and another expert write it before. The politicians all over the globe assumed the notion to label news administrations when their reporting is not advantageous and to validate their activities to, sanction, undermine, restrict and scare the media. (Sutu, 2019) There are also news individuals and organizations that substituted reporting with propaganda, destined to manipulate the political choices of the listeners by creating stories to effect public insights for the advantage of a government or politician. The Romanian 2019 Presidential elections case study, evaluated in this piece, shows an extensive range of typologies and attributes of fake news, displaying how together social and mainstream media contribute to the dissemination and production of counterfeit stories. Fake News on Social Media: People Believe What They Want to Believe When it Makes no Sense at all. Article Authors: Moravec et al., 2019. The article is peer-reviewed. The material is scientifically valid, reach reasonable conclusions. It talks about how fake news of social media is increasing in the past few years. They conducted performance research with EEG data from 83 social media workers to comprehend whether they could spot false news on social media and whether the existence of a fake news flag impacted their judgment and cognition. They found that the presence of a false news flag triggered more

78. prominent cognitive activity, and users consumed more time because of the frontpage. Though, the flag did not impact decisions about the fact; flagging headings as untrue did not affect users' opinions. A post hoc study displays that approval bias is persistent, with users expected to trust news headlines that line up with their political views. Headlines that test their views take little cognitive attention, and users are less likely to trust them. (Moravec, 2019) References Shephard, A. (2020). YouTube's Fake News Problem Isn't Going Away. In Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection Sutu, Rodica Melinda1 [email protected] 2019 Fake News, from Social Media to Television Case Study of the Romanian Presidential Elections Moravec, Minas, Dennis 2019, FAKE NEWS ON SOCIAL MEDIA: PEOPLE BELIEVE WHAT THEY WANT TO BELIEVE WHEN IT MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL.

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