Create a paragraph with these words:

Question

Bias, Clickbait, Confirmation bias, Debunk, Disinformation, Editorial, Fake news, Information, Misinformation, Propaganda, Raw information, Reliability, and Verify

Answer 1

Fake news is a problem in this country from people who hold certain biases on both the right and the left of the political spectrum. With the emerging use of social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter, it is easy to spread videos, articles and tweets containing misinformation that are intriguing because of the ease of sharing that these social media platforms provide. iFake news is editorialized and easily propagandized by the quick spread of a supposedly persuasive message. Many of the posts are considered "clickbait;" meaning the post contains information that is meant to intrigue the reader to "click" on the post, only to contain disappointing or misleading content. Fake news takes it a step further; the raw information in the content of the post is blatantly false. These news stories and videos are almost always debunked -- but often too late; shared to a point of no return where a large majority of Americans believe the information to be true, and there is no way to successfully verify the information to convince the public. The fake news culture on social media leads many to inherit a "confirmation bias;" seeking out information that confirms what they already believe to be true, instead of searching for new opinions or information. Fake news has made it difficult for the mainstream media to hold onto their own reliability because constant spreading of fake news.

Answer 2

Hello Belle: I need to jump in and give a warning! If you're attending online classes and submitting this digitally, your teacher may have easy access to a plagiarism checker.

This is plagiarism, and is not acceptable tutoring practice. Unfortunately, it's you, and not the tutor, who will take the fall. Please don't harm your academic record. Since both of the answers here are online, a plagiarism checker will immediately identify your work as plagiarism if you copy-paste, or if you make small alterations to these paragraphs. And it would be correct!

To help you use these words in context, I've provided definitions an two example sentences per word.

bias—a belief or belief system that makes you more likely to favor some information, people, etc over others, even when logic dictates otherwise

"When I'm grading tests, I hide the students' names, so that bias won't impact my grading. I don't want to grade my favorite students too leniently."

"The judge claims to be a paragon of logic, but his faulty verdicts show his bias against gay men."

clickbait—an article that entices "clicks" with vague, sensationalist headlines

"I hate all this clickbait cluttering up my Facebook feed. Where's the real news?"

"Grandpa, don't believe everything a headline tells you. That's just clickbait; they're exaggerating."

confirmation bias—the cognitive distortion that makes us more likely to accept or emphasize data that reaffirms what we already think

"The study said that milk is good for you. But it was funded by the dairy industry. Do you think there could have been any confirmation bias?"

"See! Everyone hates me!" "No they do no. How many people were mean to you today?" "....Just one." "See? It's confirmation bias."

debunk—to prove untrue

"I heard that you should put butter on a burn to help it heal." "That's just a myth—it's been totally debunked."

"She hated his claim, and set out to debunk it."

disinformation—false information spread deliberately

"To hide her wrongdoing, she began to sow disinformation. Soon, everyone would believe she had never been at the party at all."

"Not only did you misinform me, you gave me deliberate disinformation."

editorial—an opinion column

"I'm a novelist, but for my day job, I write a weekly editorial."

"Don't take that story as factual, it's just an editorial."

fake news—this has no real definition. It's a buzzword.

"It's hard to differentiate the trustable media from fake news."

"Some people disparage anything they don't like as fake news."

information—knowledge obtained from investigation, study, or instruction (according to Merriam-Webster).

"Before making a snap judgment, make sure you have all the information."

"He tried to learn about the history of baseball, but there was too much information to remember."

misinformation—false information. Unlike disinformation, "misinformation" can be written accidentally or on purpose.

"I didn't mean to give you misinformation. I really thought that was correct."

"She had very strong opinions, but she had based them all on misinformation."

propaganda—media designed to make you believe in a certain worldview

"It's easy to disguise propaganda as a happy, fun movie. Sometimes, the message is buried deeper."

"He believes that all science is really just propaganda, funded by people who want to sell him something."

raw information—this probably comes from the phrase "raw data," which is data that has yet to be organized, analyzed, or structured.

"The research part of the study was over, but the conclusion was nowhere in sight. The scientists had yet to make heads or tails of the raw information."

"It's important to listen to others' opinions, but make sure to learn the raw information behind those opinions before you form your own."

reliability—the ability to be depended upon for accuracy, honesty, or achievement (according to Dictionary.com).

"He had let her down so, so many times. By now, in her head, he had no reliability."

"Be sure to check the reliability of your source. Some websites are known to publish accurate information, while others aren't reliable in the slightest."

verify—to prove true

"My boyfriend said he was at Steve's house last night, but Steve couldn't verify his claim."

"Can you verify, for the record, that you're over 18?"

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Now, you have a sense of what each word means and how they're used. Don't worry about using them perfectly. It's more important to create something that is your own than to use the words correctly—if you take any of our sentences, and just change a few of the words or change the orders of the words around, you could get flagged for plagiarism. It's much, much better to stumble.

Answer 3

Hello, Belle,

Our class assignment was to write a paper on the amount of misinformation that is published in the local newspaper editorial column and how to find good information that would allow one to verify or debunk what was written. We keep hearing about the amount of fake news and disinformation that is permeating our society, so I guess this is an important assignment. My Dad say a lot of it is propaganda, a word I hear a lot lately. He says that since a lot of people already have a bias, they accept what is said because of confirmation bias – they already believe something is true, so they do not question it. To do my research, I went to that bastion of reliability, the Internet. I was looking for raw information about a recent article to decide whether it was true, but got distracted with clickbait.

:)

Bob