Truth or Lies?: Fake News and Political Polarization

The phrase "fake news" has widely encapsulated the world following the election of Donald Trump to the office of President of the United States. Media outlets, both conservative and liberal, have come under attack from their opposing counterparts. The headlines which they run, rather than the substance of what is presented under that headline are now even more widely judged by the audiences who view that material than before. This paper, and the survey questions that accompany it, attempts to analyze whether the trustworthiness a viewer has of a certain headline, comes from the headline itself, or rather from the news outlet which runs it. The responses compiled widely support the hypothesis that individuals more times view trustworthiness with the name of the media outlet in television media, but those are not the same circumstances as other types of media.