Penelope Chambers
Ms. Jacobs
Reading 101-100
03/20/2018
Florida Legalizing Recreational Use of Marijuana?
In today's world it's hard to avoid the spreading of gossip and rumors, as social media has helped further the efforts of spreading stories for the purpose of entertainment, but should websites stop piggybacking off of what we consider to be "real" news sites? In the State of Florida in the month of March, 2018, people took to their social media pages, and began spreading a shared link to what seemed to be an ABC News article that was captioned, “Florida Passes Bill Legalizing Recreational Use of Marijuana,” (link here http://www.abcnews-us.com/2018/03/14/florida-passes-bill-legalizing-recreational-use-of-marijuana/.)
The article stresses that legalizing recreational use of the plant, will help stimulate the economy there. It mentions Florida Democrat Leader Janet Cruz a lot, saying she strongly agrees with legalizing it for economic growth. However, she never said any of the things that she's quoted of saying such as, "The state budget was due two weeks ago, and Florida simply can’t afford to wait any longer. We deserve a real plan to create new jobs and stimulate our lagging economy, and that’s what this bill is." ABCNews-us.com is not legitimate, but ABCnews.go.com is the real one. (https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/did-florida-pass-recreational-marijuana/)
All in all, this article is completely not factual, and is a fabrication. They said this bill would be in action by Easter. This makes people expect something to happen, that may not happen for some more time to come, if ever. The quotes as well as the legislation is fake news, that takes the reputation of ABC news, and uses it to make it seem as if they posted the story.
Many people have learned that not everything you hear on the Internet, or TV is true anymore. We as people have learned that media seeks attention, and will say anything that sounds appealing for views. This is a controversial topic, as not everyone agrees that Florida should legalize the use of recreational marijuana, or use that to boost the economy. As it's considered a drug, there is a lot of debate that surrounds the issue. There are many arguments ongoing about states legalizing the drug, and there will continue to be in the future it seems.
Once in awhile I look on websites such as Facebook, and Twitter. There I often find a lot of bogus news articles. It's hard to tell a fake news from a real one at times, as both can look very convincing. Rumors come in all types, I think this type of rumor is considered anticipatory, or even a "Pipe-dream or Wish Rumor; the types of rumors express the wishes and hopes of those among they circulate." (Knapp 496)
The people who published the fake story, might of wanted people to get ready, or anticipate a change being made in congress that would benefit their wishful thinking on the passing of legalization of marijuana. The way to avoid falling for a rumor, is to check your sources, and (https://www.snopes.com/) is the domain I used to help find information for this post. Fact checking takes work, and it's important that people learn the dangers of believing everything that they read.
You did a good job on your blog, sooner or later every state going to consider this
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. With social media sites it is hard to distinguish what is real news and what is fake. We must know how to research to figure out what information is true. I've seen so many fake news stations, articles, adds, videos and etc. Then the sad part is a lot of people believe everything the read or see on TV< For instance, like the marijuana being legalized, I saw a lot of people believing the President was going to discontinue child support. Investigating sources is very important because we can view a lot of information that is false. We're exposed to it everyday especially if we use social media.
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