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Fake News Phenomenon

“The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.”

– George Orwell, 1984

By Gulnaz Nawaz | May 2021

yellow- journalism

There’s no doubt that the world of fact-checking has experienced a boom over the last decade. But how do we describe fake news? Why has fake news become so common today? Is it so new? Why is it now all around? Are we any closer to truly understanding the phenomenon of misinformation, or how to stop it?

Fake news is a metaphor that has come to mean different things to different people. At its core, “fake news” is defined as those narratives that are false: the narratives themselves are made without any solid evidence, references, or quotations. Often such narratives are propaganda intended to confuse the reader or may be crafted for the sake of economic rewards as a click bait. For the last few years, fake news has spread via social media, partly because such narratives are posted online too freely and rapidly.

Fake and misleading news reports are not exactly recent. Fake news has existed for as long as there has been news, both intentionally and unintentionally. It has been a part of media culture since the invention of the printing press, long before social media. The period at the turn of the twentieth century in which yellow journalism was coined, the name of journalism in 1895 helped to drive the United States to war with Spain and was a strong highlight of the fake news stories.

Fake news calls for the success of three basic items. These comprise the fake news triangle collectively: it cannot extend to hit a potential audience without all of these considerations. It also examines how a group can successfully promote such campaigns through means and agendas, the use of social media, and online promotion platforms and services. These are components of what we term the “False News Triangle” which, in every news or public opinion initiative, we have considered to be the cornerstone of progress.

There is a plethora of unique perspectives into how various types of fake news are observed in different contexts. Fake news isn’t just about facts, it’s about stories. Stories can in effect be so potent that Imke Henkel of Lincoln University suggests that we can become more vulnerable to false assumptions and misconceptions by using a compelling narrative rather than objective consistency. Human beings are natural storytellers; it is fair to believe that stories have been an integral part of human lives in the thousands of years based on the dramatic scenes seen in cave paintings in France. When fake headlines are repeated, people believe them more.

A recent Yale University study showed it’s not that straightforward. Through reviewing the survey findings of around 500 participants, people were more likely to conclude that if false news stories are replicated, they will even not agree with the political leaning of the audience. They also pointed out that politicians repeating the same false claims might succeed in persuading people that their statements are true. False rumours do not only replicate themselves; they also revolutionized and made more misleading rumours; real rumours are shared and do not allow the feedback they develop, conform to the related political environment, and seem like ‘news.’ The rumours are also replicated often.

“This phenomenon will have the effect of strategically replicating myths to cause other people in the hope of manipulating them,” scientists have said. “Several such reports we have seen resurge in particular near the day of elections, but after that, they ceased to disperse suddenly.”

A report published in Computers in Human Behavior in June 2018 showed that the most genuine rumours, where most fake gossip emerges from comparatively dark websites, are the source of popular news. Those rumours started to get dynamized, got more militant and added more adjectives and partisan hashtags over time. They were led by several ‘nontraditional websites’ which collected and re-packaged the old argument as news, which led scientists to speculate that “there is a community of entrepreneurs who not only make misrepresentations but also restore life to old discredited persons.”

False news has also spread with the advent of populist politicians who do not consciously sell fact-free stories. Falsehood politics has been perfected by Trump. He used ‘alternative reality’ knowingly, using conspiracy theories and attacks to advance his career as a politician, to influence sentiment. He wasn’t the only one. Demagogues and their allies across the globe have used common means to make electoral gains through spreading falsehoods to the vulnerabilities of individuals.

Moreover, as President Obama once pointed out, “false news is a threat to democracy.” Democracy is adversely affected where political discourse is degraded by falsehood and without purpose.

Fake news has no magical formulation that allows it to spread quickly. It depends clearly on the prejudices of us all. It is incredibly easy to find an amusing lie like the blaze, with the fact that readers frequently have to draw conclusions on what to think and what to dump. Vigilance is the only protection against false news. It is crucial to take time to search sources and learn how to spot counterfeit news in the wild. News guard can also help to identify legit sources and remove most of the guesswork. It is one thing to regulate technology, but it also needs to alter uncivil human behaviour. Unfortunately, reality does not normally prosper on bogus new achievements. Facts don’t mind how our minds are wired, so sometimes they fight to be understood.

“Falsehood flies and truth limps after,” wrote Jonathan Swift in 1710. That’s not more applicable anywhere else but online.

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