Reading Beyond the Headline

In our society, media is easily accessible due to technological advancements, but media is also being distorted. There is bias in the media, and it is important to be able to separate fake news from real news. In order to do so, be sure to read the entire article rather than just looking at the headline. The headline is usually clickbait and is not a good description of the article. I myself, am a victim of the misleading nature of social media, as I get most of my information about the news on my smartphone through apps such as Twitter and Facebook. I notice that the headlines tend to distort the reality of the event in order to spark the reader's interest. For instance, check out the headline from CNN below. At first, you might be appalled, reflecting on all the times you drank hot tea, but once you spend the time to read the article, you realize that they were talking about drinking “something scalding hot in your throat” which will lead to an increased risk of cancer, not the actual tea itself. Headlines are usually an exaggerated version of the story as companies and newscasters use headlines in order to get more views resulting in the newscasters throwing a preposterous claim out into the world that is far from the reality of the event. Be sure to read the whole article before jumping to conclusions. 

Source: http://www.tomliberman.com/tag/misleading-headline

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