Fake News
Who, what, where, when, why and how the f***!?
Fake news, to put it simply, is news that is not real. It is largely circulated online by those who have little regard for the truth and who instead have economic and, particularly, political intentions. It is also circulated by those who revel in the naivety of humanity and who ogle at their screens, popcorn in hand, as their stories’ readership numbers and shares increase, with no sign of their credibility being questioned. Readers of fake news, unbeknown to them, inhale the false information as readily as they inhale the air surrounding them.
Despite their economic, political or entertainment purposes for circulating fake news, are the producers of these stories completely in the wrong? Or are we just as bad for being sucked into this falsity and believing it to be true?
In agreement with the former question, producers of fake news were heavily criticised during the recent US Presidential election as it was claimed they were falsely influencing American voters. A BuzzFeed News analysis discovered that the top-performing fake election news stories on Facebook generated more reads, shares, likes and comments than the top stories from major news outlets combined. For example, fake headlines like “WikiLeaks CONFIRMS Hillary Sold Weapons to ISIS… Then Drops Another BOMBSHELL! Breaking News” proved far more popular to Facebook users than real headlines such as “Ford Fact Checks Trump: We Will Be Here Forever”. This not only highlights the near impossible task of deciphering a fake news story from a real one, but highlights the significant role that social media plays. Social media is the catalyst increasing the availability of fake news. As these social media platforms become more prevalent and necessary in today’s world, this increasing availability becomes more and more of a worry.
Last month, Facebook officials released their plans to tackle the rise in fake news on our newsfeeds. They announced that users will soon be able to flag stories if they suspect their credibility and, in response to this, these stories will be sent to third party fact checkers. If they agree with the stories’ disreputability then they will tag it, which will appear alongside the story on Facebook. These fake news stories will not be deleted from the social networking site and will still be able to be shared, however the disputed tag attached to them will negatively impact their scores in Facebook’s algorithm meaning fewer people will see them on their newsfeed. If they do, it will require a lengthy scrolling process and will probably be found underneath a video of a hamster eating tiny, human-like meals, or underneath a status posted by that girl that was in your school year and who you only spoke to once.
In answer to — ‘are we just as bad for being sucked into this falsity?’ there is one man, who isn’t being sucked, but is instead happily strolling into this deception. Can you guess who I’m referring to? Yes, the one, the only — Donald Trump.
In February of this year, Trump falsely told a rally that Sweden had undergone an immigration-related security incident and stated that “they’re having problems like they never thought possible.’ After a backlash of bafflement from Swedish government officials and a bombardment of Twitter mockery, Trump accused a television report for feeding him false information. Even for you readers who aren’t politically savvy, you can’t deny that it’s particularly worrying when, even the President of the United States can’t get his facts right.
Trump, however, is (thankfully) not representative for the whole of mankind. His gullibility is a result of his lazy fact-checking and his subsequent want to create immediate and colossal media coverage; whereas, we are not to blame for reading fake news as real. This can be argued as we are currently living in an information age. Every day, we drown in information that has been spoon-fed to us by electronic wizardry, and often, this overwhelming nature means the line between truth and falsehood is blurred. Even in real news, the line between fact and opinion is again blurred. Furthermore, as the information given to us increases, our attention is increasingly strained and challenged. We often ‘read’ a story by taking in the headline alone, disregarding the bulk of the story as it is believed to be of less importance and thus, falling into the trap that fake news has set up.
‘A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention’
- Herbert A. Simon
Due to our current societal standing, it seems that fake news is here to stay. Despite this, there are actions that can be taken to outsmart these trap-setters. For one, journalists can be professional, relevant, truthful and transparent. News distributors can filter out fake news better, give primacy to qualitative content and promote news literacy. Lastly, we can, and should, be less susceptible and more inquisitive, paying more attention to the outlet feeding us information and questioning whether or not it is trustworthy.
With thanks to Eloise Douglass
