Newsreal

The Real Consequences of Fake News

By: Joseph MacKinnon, Carlo Schefter

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

NEWSREAL is a political comedy that explores the real consequences of fake news. Big-city reporter Alecia Troust writes a weekly column for The Gruffington Buzz. Her hopes of promotion are dashed when her make-it-or-break-it article is lost along with her laptop. Instead of playing a victim to circumstance, Alecia instead submits an even more compelling story. However, this new story—regarding homegrown terrorism and containing “evidence" of an execution on American soil—is a fabrication. It is fake news. Although she initially receives national attention, Alecia’s lie draws the interest of anarcho-communists, western chauvinists, jihadists, the news media, as well as those who seek to profit from maintaining the fake news’ veracity, including the FBI and the CIA. With the worst of the country desperate to exploit the story for political ends, Alecia realizes far more than journalistic integrity is at stake. She must get the truth out before her fake news catalyzes a national descent into paranoia, war, and authoritarianism.