Confronting the Ogre: fake news
Craig Silverman is taking on the drivel of the internet. But he needs your help.
The Ogre does what the Ogre can,
Deeds quite impossible for man,
But one prize is beyond is reach:
The Ogre cannot master speech.About a subjugated plain,
Among its desperate and its slain,
The Ogre stalks with hands on hips,
While drivel gushes from his lips.
— “Sept. 1, 1939,” W.H. Auden
The first thing Craig Silverman does each morning might be enough to make any ethical journalist sick. As the media editor for BuzzFeed Canada, his job involves sifting through the garbage of the internet: fake news.
Speaking at Storyology in Brisbane, Silverman made it clear that he can’t keep the tide of trash at bay on his own. He put a call out to all journalists to join him on his beat and push back against the surge.
“We have a chance, in this very confusing and chaotic environment, to kind of reassert and help people navigate through all this,” he said.
“I think it starts with us, individually and in our newsrooms.”
It was an optimistic outlook on an otherwise charmless topic.
Addressing a room mostly full of journalists, Silverman outlined some distinct styles of fake news. The examples he shared revealed the insidious nature of this media — media that all too often slips by the gatekeepers.
Silverman gave an example of a story made to look like it was published by the Guardian. It alleged that an ex-head of the British intelligence agency MI6 had sat down with the news organisation and admitted that the CIA and MI6 had played an integral part in the Republic of Georgia’s Rose Revolution.
The article had the right look. The URL in the browser appeared normal, but a closer inspection revealed an inconspicuous character masquerading as an ‘i’ (perhaps ı, from the Turkish alphabet) that gave the game away. The article was also poorly written and clearly not intended for an English-speaking audience.
It was propaganda. This propaganda was designed to be translated back into Russian and used in the country’s domestic politics.
Silverman said this was concerning because “on a technical level [the article] was really good.” And it’s the technology behind fake news that journalists need to wise up to; there’s an algorithm gold rush on, and operators of all stripes are cashing in.
He gave the example of a young man from Kosovo who takes advantage of Facebook algorithms to promote fake websites. First, he captures readers through contentious headlines, and then once the trap is sprung, the viewer who clicks is met with a wall of ads.
“In a world where there is a huge amount of information and people are competing intensely, you earn more money for the attention you capture,” Silverman says.
It’s a method of gaining audiences that can be exploited not only for financial gain, but for ideological advantage.
Given this online environment, and the deeply entrenched norms of hyper-partisan news organisations, Silverman says it’s no surprise that the term fake news has slid its way into the everyday lexicon—coopted, twisted and weaponised by Donald Trump and his followers. As a result of this breach, Silverman is concerned that the sinister reality of the phenomenon will be played down.
So, what can we as journalists do about it?
Silverman doesn’t have a definitive answer. Journalists have an opportunity to reassert themselves as filters, to reengage with the public, to take back lost ground.
There is no choice, he says.
“I’m doing what journalists never do, and inviting you to get on my beat with me.”
