谢振礼 托福范文: 刊假新闻
TOEFL Independent Writing (sample essays 2017-2018)
China 2018-07-01 托福写作 ielts360toefl@hotmail.com writing correction service
Topic:
Some people believe that the media (for example: television, radio, newspapers, or Internet news sources) are less concerned nowadays with presenting accurate facts than they were in the past. These people argue that the media today often present incorrect information about news stories and that this causes problems for the public. Do you agree or disagree with this view? Why? Or why not? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Essay:
The bad news about news nowadays is about fake news, referring to presenting inaccurate facts, the like of which were not seen in the past. Fake news has become one of the biggest problems of our age because of its capacity (especially via the Internet) to influence the public. Why is it happening and how much of a threat is fake news to our society?
Arguably, some people believe that in this age of advanced technology, the media may be less concerned with presenting accurate facts than they were in the past. If nothing else to support this opinion, it should be reminded that there was no such thing as the Internet in the past when fake news was less common. Based on a recent survey, the public’s assessment of the accuracy of news stories is now at its lowest level in just a few decades. Along with traditional news information sources like television, radio and newspapers, today it should come as no surprise that the Internet has spawned a resurgence of fake news. That is why, now more than ever before, lies spread faster and more widely and more deeply than truth does. So much so, false and often novel statements spread like wildfire on social media (for example, Facebook and Twitter), probably because by nature people are quicker to repeat something that is wrong than something that is true. That is to say, the media today often present incorrect information about news stories as people are more likely to share more novel information than true news.
This phenomenon, which has become increasingly evident, is coming with a serious threat to the public. Although it is true that journalism has never been error-free, today’s fake news is more dangerous for containing a higher percentage of falsehoods. For one thing, when it is no longer clear what is true and what is false, people begin to lose confidence in news stories. In other words, it misleads the reader or viewer, leaving the audience unable to discern what is true and what is fiction. These misconceptions can contribute to a wide variety of social problems for the public. And in turn, this can help convince the audience that there is no difference between facts and opinions. Whereas many people may be able to spot fake news, actually only a few would choose to double check the facts, of which some were purposely misrepresented in the media. In certain aspects, fake news may continue to spread to the point of threatening the public, and this is a problem that is going to get worse because the authorities are notoriously slow to change while technology is developing more rapidly than ever.
As a conclusion, what is happening is that there are more and more incorrect facts in news stories presented by the news media, particularly the Internet. Fake news is dangerous due to its capacity to influence the public. For that matter, it may be said that no fake news is good news,
