Last Wednesday, I attended the Rose Cafe where Professor Schwarz discussed the topic of fake news.  I enjoyed how he took the time to examine the different kinds of fake news, from articles written with a bias to articles that contain outright false information.  One of the key points I took away from the talk was how fake news is not just in news media communications but in gossip, social media, and other parts of daily conversation.  Professor Schwarz also emphasized how we should speak out against others spreading stereotypes or hurtful gossip and rumors, or else we will continue letting fake news spread.  

What I thought about during the talk was how the rise of the Internet and other technologies has changed the way we communicate and digest information.  Long ago, people would have to wait until a newspaper was printed daily to learn about news that recently happened.  Today, barely moments after a newsworthy event happens, we can receive updates on our phones in real-time.  While this is positive in many ways, the Internet also poses challenges, namely, that anyone can post anything he or she wishes online with no approval process.  With a paper newspaper, it was expected that only top-quality journalism would make its way to newspaper stands.  With the Internet, all it takes is a few clicks to edit an article to correct it (with more effort needed to find older versions).  After these clicks, there may be no indication that incorrect information was expunged from an article, underscoring our need to be cautious of what we read online.  Overall, this talk emphasized how important it is to only seek out information from reliable sources and to do our best to prevent disreputable sources from spreading false information.