Fake News: Not Only the Punch Line for GIFs
We’ve all stumbled upon those ‘fake news’ GIFs like…..
and this…..
Before my social media class at Ryerson, I didn’t take these very seriously. Now when I think about what fake news really is, I realize that it not only affects the person being talked about, but the people consuming this type of news as well. An article that I found from the University of Michigan’s library defines fake news as “those news stories that are false: the story itself is fabricated, with no verifiable facts, sources or quotes. Sometimes these stories may be propaganda that is intentionally designed to mislead the reader, or may be designed as “clickbait” written for economic incentives (the writer profits on the number of people who click on the story). In recent years, fake news stories have proliferated via social media, in part because they are so easily and quickly shared online”.
(source http://guides.lib.umich.edu/fakenews)
Arguably the biggest fake news story right now involves Donald Trump’s election back in 2016. It’s thought that the election was rigged. Some people are concerned that fake news was shared about the other presidential candidates in order to sway voters in Trump’s direction. Some also believe that the Russian government was working with Trump in order to make this happen. The web is filled with reports like these, just click this link for an example of one: http://theconversation.com/trump-may-owe-his-2016-victory-to-fake-news-new-study-suggests-91538.
If you weren’t interested in the link, I’ll give you a brief summary of the article. Basically, journalists from The Conversation went as far as conducting their own surveys. The results were analyzed in an attempt to determine what kind of news people believed, and how this effected their support of Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama. With something as serious as a presidential election, I can totally see why fake news has become an online epidemic. However, it’s sad to me that our society (including myself) didn’t realize how influential and sneaky fake news can be until the bigot Trump got elected. Anyways, before I get into a rant about Trump, I’ll move on.
Spreading lies for a personal or monetary gain is not something that’s new. Magazines are notorious for using this tactic. The next time you’re waiting by the cash register at a Shoppers Drug Mart, I encourage you to glance over at the magazines. I guarantee that 90% of them will involve some type of celebrity scandal involving infidelity or unplanned pregnancy. Seriously, Jennifer Anniston has probably been declared pregnant over 100 times by magazine writers. But like clickbait, these writers use certain headlines to get people to flip through the pages. This type of business involving fake headlines actually angers me. I’ve made it a personal goal to boycott People Magazine entirely, and you’ll never find me grabbing gossip magazines while waiting in line at the register. I think that in order to gain control over fake news, we have to acknowledge that it’s out there, and make an effort to not get our information from publications (that we know) bend the truth or make up a story entirely.
I’m not totally oblivious though. I realize that when it comes to online platforms this is easier said than done. Sure we can avoid eye contact with magazines, but due to filter bubbles and echo chambers on our favourite sites, we’re constantly being thrown information that computer algorithms think we will enjoy. This can get us inadvertently caught up with fake news.
For those of you who aren’t sure what a filter bubble or echo chamber is, this video gives an awesome overview:
Algorithms can be very quick to start altering your feed. When we’re constantly looking up videos of Harry Styles on Instagram, eventually our Instagram algorithm will pick up on this. The next time we open up the app, our ‘discover page’ will be filled with the latest clips from Harry performing on stage. (And okay yes fine, when I say we I really mean me). This sort of thing is great when we’re looking for harmless, entertaining content, but it’s not great when news stories are involved. As shown by the graph below, people are frequently checking online for their news updates in 2018.
Stated in the Oxford University “Filter Bubbles, Echo Chambers, and Online News Consumption” article, “individuals may choose to consume only content that accords with their previously held beliefs. Commentators such as Sunstein (2009) have thus predicted the rise of “echo chambers,” in which individuals are largely exposed to conforming opinions. Indeed, in con- trolled experiments, subjects tend to choose news articles from outlets aligned with their political opinions (Garrett 2009; Iyengar and Hahn 2009; Munson and Resnick 2010). Additionally, search engines, news aggregators, and social networks are increasingly personalizing content through machine-learning models (Agichtein, Brill, and Dumais 2006; Das et al. 2007; Hannak et al. 2013), potentially creating “filter bubbles” (Pariser 2011) in which algorithms inadvertently amplify ideological segregation by automatically recommending content an individual is likely to agree with. Moreover, individuals are more likely to share information that conforms to opinions in their local social neighborhoods (Moscovici and Zavalloni 1969; Myers and Bishop 1970; Spears, Lea, and Lee 1990; Schkade, Sunstein, and Hastie 2007)”.
(source: https://watermark.silverchair.com/nfw006.pdf?token=AQECAHi208BE49Ooan9kkhW_Ercy7Dm3ZL_9Cf3qfKAc485ysgAAAaAwggGcBgkqhkiG9w0BBwagggGNMIIBiQIBADCCAYIGCSqGSIb3DQEHATAeBglghkgBZQMEAS4wEQQMUKYbagi8iV8hV-6YAgEQgIIBU-Q2CwDqNHhAGrrnJPmvZQkkhRERXztOMqA0zpnWOqJwDm4Nf28EduapnR_xwvzdubXYh7SNPTZQKKYakI56WXjoXNIv3Dg4VBC0BLggRg6CkRNi5hTQZP7eVE9U6reTdBXvOsVwBGAnv5KWDkRY3YQSR7F2zJR_P_3amT2Pw_KDOMvITsilTFk9x0jJzfFNaOBBYZ32gW48urZ_183DSngPAljguwbZY-z8q4dnA9_JHOlFyllWIM56SMjjOwp0zyPZhFYB-dTmg_j9MlP3v4sNkjYWTh4-49iENv6iNV0lRoWlpUnnWtMsYWjmkhTwkD-q17Rwb8MtgKYcirwq5RVq_aPmnGg7Dbd9dtfW7qwwT2r-uP_doUfAKD3Wtug35U9B7i1mkczokb9xyf-kwOmuZgSpHnihftZsP8Pz4kDdKRqus_gc1qQkSWZ6ii1Q9HRNLQ)
If people blindly believe the information that they are reading because they agree with it, then they are not thinking critically. What I mean by this is that it’s important for people to follow up on the information that they read. They can do this by using a different computer to look up a story that they previously read. This is so that they don’t get caught up in the filter bubbles on their own computer. This will allow them to access the story from different points of view. Or better yet, people can open up a newspaper (because yes paper copies of these do still exist) to see what’s being reported from multiple outlets.
It’s important to read news from multiple sources because certain people purposely attempt to keep media consumers secluded in their filter bubbles. For businesses, these people are called command centres. “A social media command centre is a dedicated area where a company can monitor and engage in social conversation around their brand and market. Whether it’s a state-of-the-art showpiece or a group of desks in a room, it allows for real-time monitoring of social media trends that can inform business decisions and enhance the social health of your brand”.
(source https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2013/05/social-media-command-centers.html)
These command centres are simply people in charge of social media accounts and are those who are the voice of the brand. Since a company has multiple shareholders and directors, the command centre acts as one voice for this large group of people. I like to think of these command centres like the public relations (PR) agencies that people in the spotlight hire to help them with their image. These PR teams are used to help with damage control when fake news and scandals hit.
When it comes to celebrity scandals, PR agencies get right to the point when talking to the celebrities themselves about a scandal. “According to Allan Mayer, co-founder and CEO of 42West, a strategic communications firm specializing in entertainment PR, the first step is to get to the truth. “If they’ve done something truly awful, or even just bad, my approach has always been to get them to own it, and if they’re not willing to do that, then I can’t help them,” and “Kelly Brady, co-founder and CEO of Brandsway Creative, says she sits down with her clients and asks them point blank: “I need you to tell me the truth. Is what you’re being accused of true or false?”.
(source https://www.refinery29.com/2017/12/182774/pr-crisis-celebrity-publicists-hollywood-scandals?bucketed=true)
It’s unfortunate though that these particular conversations about truth don’t happen because a celebrity is trying to promote charitable works, something that will actually benefit society in some way. It’s possible for a PR representative to drop a client if the celebrity has done things that the representative truly can’t stomach.
Politicians also seek the help of PR agencies to help them through scandals. There’s a particular tactic that these PR agencies use that I personally think leads to fake news. This tactic is called “spinning”. I think this because spinning “involves the presentation of particular facts that support a candidate’s position and discredit an opponent’s opinion. It can involve downplaying a mistake or making an apology or denial. Spinning often includes misdirection or diversion in an attempt to keep the reputation of a candidate intact”.
(source https://online.pointpark.edu/public-relations-and-advertising/public-relations-and-politics/)
Altering the facts could mean that during this process, facts are being changed entirely. Who are we (as social media consumers) to know what parts of a politician’s speech have been changed when they’re addressing bad news about themselves? This is all the more reason to look up news from multiple sources in order to learn as much as you can about a pending story.
So there you have it, fake news isn’t only a joke we see with GIFS. If we get too caught up in our filter bubbles then the blatant lying and manipulation caused by fake news gets the upper hand. Let’s be smart social media consumers and beat the system. Let’s do our research and not believe everything we read the moment we read it.
