"Fake Media"

It is fun reading pieces from websites like The Onion. Most of the articles are fake with funny headlines, but there is some real content. but it is satire for entertainment purposes. Articles with titles like "Mellowing Jihadist Not As Enraged By Western Culture As He Used To Be" and "Scientists Recieve $10 Million Grant To Melt Stuff". The headlines are hilarious, and the articles are even funnier.

The idea that people write fake news stories and make money off of it seems like an ideal job to me. There is so much room for creativity and it might even be more fun to write than to read. My only problem is if they have both real and fake content, it can be hard to decipher what is real news and what is not. But if you are going to The Onion for real content in the first place, you have been looking in the wrong place.

It was funny, I saw a girl share a post on my Facebook newsfeed on newly released photos that exposed the pre-photoshopped photos of Kim Kardashian from the magazine cover of "Paper Magazine". This girl was upset, expressing a frustration of how magazines depict what a beautiful woman should look like, and by doing so they use fake photos.

This girl has a real reason to be upset. I agree that this is a problem within our society. However, the article was not real. She shared this article from Empirenews.net, another satire website that puts up hilarious articles similar to The Onion. This girl is not the first person to make a mistake like this, but it is evidence to show how authentic these articles appear.

We should not trust whatever pops up on the internet, that was the girl's only mistake. These satire websites are not trying to cause harm by making fake news and fooling people, but it is all for entertainment purposes. We must remember when viewing these websites, we must see what else the website is about before we give credit to it. Empirenews.net had stories on its homepage "President Obama's Birth Certificate Sells For 3.4 Million At An Auction" and "Microsoft Founder Bill Gates 'Comes Out' As Homosexual".

Both The Onion and Empire News have disclaimers that say they are "satirical and entertainment website[s]. We only use invented names in all our stories, except in cases when public figures are being satirized. Any other use of real names is accidental and coincidental." We all must remember to look for these things when we see want to share such ridiculous stories!