Fake News
In the last 4 years you will have heard a lot about "Fake News". The use of media to mislead others has always been an issue, but it has grown and become a larger problem in recent times. In any place where you are able to communicate messages, it opens the possibility to communicate false messages, and with modern media platforms the reach of these false messages has grown exponentially.
Fake news isn't always entirely fiction! In more cases than not, it is based on real stories and begin with real facts. It is what they do with these facts that changes how "real" a story is. Some articles will be entirely opinion stories, which start off with an event but afterwards are just describing the authors opinion with no other facts to back it up. Other stories cherry pick details from a story in a way that makes an entirely different narrative, they leave out major details which effectively change the story to be what the author wants it to communicate.
Some Fake News is done on purpose for comedy, and this is called satirical news. Examples of this are The Beaverton and The Onion, who both release comedic stories related to real events in life. Other fake news is not for comedy, and is instead meant to create a narrative for a certain group or political view. This happens on all spectrums of politics and these channels sometimes get mixed in with traditional news outlets, causing people to believe the "Fake News".
Below is a video from CBC Comedian Rick Mercer, talking about and ranting about fake news and false information: