Will News Ever Be True?
We could assume that the news would be the safest place to gain any and all truthful information. However, with “fake news” being Collins Dictionary’s 2017 word of the year, we can assume that “truthful news” is a myth.
Early November of this year, a famous YouTuber Josh Pieters uploaded a video called ‘I Tricked The World With A Fake Ed Sheeran’. Even though his attempt in hiring a celebrity look-alike was only a trick, many other news outlets attempt to tickle fake information throughout the public for a more manipulative intent.
How do they present news as believable and can we ever trust what we read?
News Intake: why this is happening
Often, we as a public only surf the Internet for fun. Therefore, when certain spots of information are “false”, we are not heavily impacted. Like with Pieters’ video, the people at the event might have thought they met Ed Sheeran. But, with being a part of a humorous prank, making it into the video, or just watching it for entertainment, we lose the anger behind the fake celebrity. Rather, we respect Pieters for creating such entertainment — within a month the video had reached nearly 6 million views. However, the problem deepens when students, scholars, or academics need factual information that is true.
Finding the Truth: the impacts
One can say that finding the truth is establishing whether a fact is objective or subjective. By removing one’s opinion, we assume that we are left with strong, factual, and true information. An opinion is often needed to enhance a story, making it harder to find the truth in journalism or blogs. But when facts are needed, you would assume they are there.
‘Hundreds of thousands of scientists took to streets around the world in April. We need science because science tells the truth. We are those who can fight the fake news’ — the Guardian (2017).
The idea that the same experiment will always produce the same results, no matter who performs it, is one of the main reasons why science is true. So, when experiments and their results are presented in the news, we would expect these to be accurate.
However, a study showed that more than 70% of the researchers could not replicate 50% of life science research and 51% of economics papers. The only explanation for this — even simple and factual writing isn’t accurate in the news.
What Can We Do: the future
With the realisation that “fake news” is not just used as an entertainment tool, but has impacted scholars and science, all we can do is recognise the problem. Josh Pieters’ video might not have provided international manipulation, but the ability for anyone to post false information online whenever they want adds to this issue. News that looks “objective” cannot be taken as fact anymore and only with multiple news outlets stating the same fact, we can trust their truth. One thing we must always remember, though, is that no one’s truth is everyone’s truth.
Gonchar, M. (2017). How Do You Know if What You Read Online Is True?. Nytimes.com. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/learning/how-do-you-know-if-what-you-read-online-is-true.html.
Hunt, J. (2017). Fake news is officially 2017’s word of the year. The Independent. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/fake-news-word-of-the-year-2017-collins-dictionary-donald-trump-kellyanne-conway-antifa-corbynmania-a8032751.html.
Kirchherr, J. (2017). Why we can’t trust academic journals to tell the scientific truth. the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2017/jun/06/why-we-cant-trust-academic-journals-to-tell-the-scientific-truth.
Pieters, J. (2019). I Tricked The World With A Fake Ed Sheeran at KSI V Logan Paul. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SgCl3_cZcY&t=332s.
