Anatomy of a Fake News Post - How Fake News Generates Profit

"Fake News" - we heard the term a lot during the 2016 Presidential Election. But what is it, and why are people posting it?

Contrary to what many organizations would have you believe, most "fake news" isn't posted to manipulate elections. In fact, most fake news is posted to generate ad revenue or influence consumer spending.

Fake news isn't anything new, and in fact pre-dates the Internet. Newspapers and magazines would publish "advertorials" designed to influence consumer spending and encourage purchase of certain products or services. For many years this was completely unregulated, and consumers would have no idea that these articles were in fact paid advertisements.

Local WDVM News Busted Promoting Misleading News Story

HAGERSTOWN, MD - WDVM recently released a story claiming that Smithsburg residents have started an online petition against Antietam Broadband's lack of competition as an Internet Provider.

But that story isn't completely accurate.

The story from WDVM makes it sound like Smithsburg residents recently started the petition.  However, reviewing the actual petition reveals a different story.

Opinion: Unremarkable News Shouldn't be Sensationalized

HAGERSTOWN, MD - In the past several years I have noticed a disturbing trend by local news media. In attempts to draw more people to their websites and generate ad revenue, certain local news media outlets are taking unremarkable events, such as a resident having a dispute with a family member and resolving it peacefully, or a resident winning a prize at a local fire department fundraiser, and running sensationalized headlines simply because the resident is a local politician.