THE RISE OF 'FAKE NEWS'

Monday, 20 March 2017

The rise of fake news

• Fake news hit the headlines during the American elections, It has been highlighted by new president Donald Trump as a major issue for social media. Research the following and create a 'case study'

• This was supposed to be the information age. Instead, we find ourselves in a swamp of disinformation, rumor, innuendo and fake news. To cite a few examples: A false endorsement of Donald Trump by the pope on Facebook went viral misinformation about Trump and Hillary Clinton during the elections seemed to have a big influence how voters saw them and their values, and finally who they voted for.

• Fake news websites (also referred to as hoax news^[1][2]) deliberately publish hoaxes, propaganda, and disinformation purporting to be real news—often using social media to drive web traffic and amplify their effect.^[3][4][5] Unlike news satire, fake news websites seek to mislead rather than entertain readers, often for financial or political gain

• We all depend on our media environment to give us a roughly accurate view of the world around us. Again and again, the proliferation of new sources has failed in this basic task – leaving people with systematically distorted views of the world, which in turn lead them to make bad decisions

• Bending the truth for political gain is certainly nothing new - it’s propaganda, and the record of its uses stretch back to ancient times. Octavian famously used a campaign of disinformation to aid his victory over Marc Anthony in the final war of the Roman Republic.

• 20th century propaganda- Fueled by mass communication, propaganda grew in scale and persuasive power during the turmoil of the 20th centuries in a series of major ideological struggles. In World War One, the British government used propaganda very effectively in motivating the population against Germany, which was frequently depicted as "The Hun". The Nazi party used the growing mass media to build a power base and then consolidate power in Germany during the 1930s, using racial stereotyping to encourage discrimination against Jews. In the ensuing Second World War, the propaganda machine was used relentlessly by all sides across the media spectrum.

• Barack Obama believes “fake news” is a threat to democracy. The outgoing US president said he was worried about the way that “so much active misinformation” can be “packaged very well” and presented as fact on people’s social media feeds.

• A problem with media and Fake news is that problem is that retracting “fake news” on social media is currently poorly supported by the technology. Though posts can be deleted, this is a passive act, less impactful than even the single-paragraph retractions in newspapers. In order to have an impact, it would be necessary not simply to delete posts but to highlight and require users to see and acknowledge items removed as “fake news”.

Class work/ Homework essay based questions:

1) What is Fase news? Is this a new thing?

2) Why is it important that users of media can believe the information that they come across?

3) What is the issue at the moment? Why is Fake news a problem? Give an example from the Trump election.

4) What can be done to tackle fake news? What would be some other issues in current platforms?