Fake News in Context

Lesley S. J. Farmer

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780367406042
• eBook ISBN: 9781000281293
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Journalism
• Index: Social Sciences

Fake News in Context defines fake news and sets it within a historical and international context. Helping readers to become more skilled at detecting misinformation, the book also demonstrates how such knowledge can be leveraged to facilitate more effective engagement in civic education.

Distinguishing between fake news and other forms of misinformation, the book explains the complete communication cycle of fake news: how and why it is created, disseminated and accessed. The book then explains the physical and psychological reasons why people believe fake news. Providing generic methods for identifying fake news, Farmer also explains the use of fact- checking tools and automated algorithms. The book then details how various literacies, including news, media, visual, information, digital and data, offer unique concepts and skills that can help interpret fake news. Arguing that individuals and groups can respond and counter fake news, which leads to civic engagement and digital citizenship, the book concludes by providing strategies for instruction and tips for collaborating with librarians.

Including a range of international examples, Fake News in Context will be of interest to teaching faculty, and students of library and information science, communication studies, media studies, politics and journalism. Librarians and information professionals will also find a valuable resource in this book.

1

Introduction

Byzantine historian Procopius did it, and Emperor Justinian suffered from it.

Reverend Henry Bate did it, and Queen Marie-Antionette suffered from it (Darnton, 2017).

American Revolutionary Samuel Adams did it, and President John Adams suffered from it.

We may never know who started #Pizzagate, but we know who suffered from it. These are all examples of fake news. Fake news about COVID-19 has also resulted in people drinking bleach, attacking Chinese people, or not taking the pandemic seriously – and dying.

At the time of writing, over seven million people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and the U.S. Presidential election campaign is cresting. The “infodemic” of fake news is overwhelming the public. What should be paid attention to? Whom should we believe? How should we react? The fates of people and their governments hang in the balance.

As recent politics have made abundantly clear, news (i.e., a report of current events) might not be as true as it appears. At the same time, mass media play an increasingly significant role in today’s society, as noted by Ireton and Posetti of UNESCO (2018). More than ever, people need to consciously and critically analyze and evaluate mass media messages, such as the news, and then decide how to respond. Of particular interest these days is fake news: deliberate, publicly published fabrication/disinformation/hoax/lie purported to be real news.

Several other kinds of information also mislead people (EAVI, 2017; Tandoc, Lim & Ling, 2018). Disinformation is a deliberate lie that has the intent to mislead its audience; fake news is a subset of disinformation, the difference being that disinformation does not have to be news. Misinformation, on the other hand, is incorrect information that is usually an honest mistake; it is not intended to fool anyone. Malinformation may be accurate, but its intent is to harm people. Bogus news – and bogus information – is fabricated; the motivation varies. News satire mocks news stories through humor and exaggeration. News parody mimics mass media, but incorporates non-factual information humorously to show the ridiculousness of the news. Both satire and parody depend on the audience to know the original news and compare it with the one-off joke. Propaganda is subjective information created by a political entity or other group to influence public attitudes. Sponsored content is information paid for by an entity, sometimes called native advertising, usually to support the sponsor’s viewpoint. Partisan statements reflect one side of an issue, and are typically given by a political party member. Conspiracy theory is the belief that some event is the result of a covert influential group rather than some accepted reason. Pseudo-science is typically the misreading of actual science research or misinterpretation of data such as misleading statistical graphs.

As the above examples show, fake news is not new, and it’s not going away. As long as people want to gain power or wealth, as long as people want to persuade others at any cost, fake news will continue. Fortunately, such people are a minority, even though their voices may seem to drown out other sounds. As more communication channels exist, and fake news can spread faster and wider than ever, it can seem that it constitutes a greater proportion of the news than in the past. However, the truth is that “real,” accurate news has a larger first dissemination layer and lasts longer. There is hope. We should not become cynical, distrustful, withdrawn and desperate. We still have control over how we respond.

Thus, fake news is a wake-up call to the community at large to gain competency in critically analyzing and addressing fake news in particular and information overall. Indeed, the saying “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty” applies to discerning and dealing with fake news. Fake news is everyone’s responsibility. We need to keep current about the world around us as it affects us more than ever. We need to continue to learn about our world and be cognizant of its societal diversity, including points of view. We need to keep an open mindset, especially in these dynamic and changing times. We need to understand the varied forms of communicating and how each format shapes messages. We need to manage technology effectively and responsibly to access, utilize, create and communicate informed news as digital citizens. Civic engagement is a must in order for society to survive.

The more knowledgeable people are, the better equipped they are to deal with fake news. Learners need explicit instruction in critically analyzing news and other media messages, and they need to know how to participate effectively in public discourse to counter fake news and contribute competently in the civic arena. Fortunately, fake news also serves as an authentic context for formal and informal education, which can motivate learners’ engagement. Because fake news involves a complex set of multi-disciplinary knowledge, skills, dispositions and actions, it serves as a relevant gateway to several literacies and life applications, thereby bridging academic and daily life.

In this respect, educators themselves also need instruction in these literacies so they have the competence to integrate them into the curriculum and link them to societal realities with the intent of giving learners authentic opportunities to practice those literacies responsibly and effectively. Fortunately, librarians are well positioned to leverage the hot topic of fake news to highlight the importance of information and media literacies, and incorporate them systematically into formal and informal education in collaboration with other educators and decision-makers.

As part of the news communication cycle, other stakeholders also need to step up their fake news game. News creators and disseminators need to follow professional and personal codes of ethics as they produce and disseminate accurate and insightful news. In the process, they need to show their transparency to their audiences and engage with them to build trust and collaboration. Decision-makers need to gather and analyze relevant news and other data effectively, listen to their constituents and provide opportunities for them to participate meaningfully, and seek the best outcomes for the public good. Families are children’s first teachers so they need to model responsible behavior regarding fake news: accessing and managing the flood of news that they encounter, making informed decisions, teaching children positive values, and getting involved in their children’s learning experiences. Participants at each point in the news cycle can be vigilant about fake news, as well as impacting the context of fake news. Such efforts ultimately benefit society at large.

In sum, identifying and addressing fake news is a critical life skill because it informs daily decisions and consequential actions within the context of daily life. Such efforts result in a virtuous information cycle as individuals become capable and contributing citizens, and ultimately impact the society in which they – and all of us – live.

What is the extent of fake news?

In 2013 the World Economic Forum called the viral spread of misleading information a “digital wildfire” global risk. By 2018 the University of Oxford found organized social media manipulation in 70 countries. According to a Pew Study (Mitchell et al., 2019), Americans see fake news as the most important issue in the country. During the latter part of the 2016 United States Presidential campaign, fake news was shared and commented more than real news, according to a 2016 Buzzfeed report. The same report found that over 100 pro-Trump fake websites originated in Macedonia alone. One Belgium company owns over 180 URLs dedicated to creating and disseminating fake news (Figueira & Oliveira, 2017). Rumors and disinformation constitute a major part of Asian social and political tensions, especially because of close networks and trust in like-minded associates (Yee, 2017). In Southeast Asia, this situation is exacerbated due to the uneven quality of journalism and lagging education standards that would otherwise enable people to discern fake news (Hutt, 2017). The extent of fake news and other disinformation was so great that the Oxford English Dictionary selected “post-truth” as the 2016 international word of the year (Berghel, 2017).

A 2016 Ipsos Poll found that 75 percent of people fall for fake news headlines. A 2016 Pew Research Center study revealed that almost a quarter of adults have shared a made-up news story, and two-thirds of adults say that fake news leads them to be confused about basic facts of current news, although more than three-quarters of adults feel at least somewhat confident about being able to recognize fake news.

Fake news has increased so much largely due to social media. Such Internet platforms are dynamic in nature, and facilitate attention-getting and sharing. Furthermore, fake news itself is a highly adaptive culture form that is hard to regulate or reform (Reilly, 2018). Even fake news regulation itself is problematic as it can devolve into censorship and limitations on freedom of speech. Who determines truth – and how? What are the criteria for fact-checking? What level of staffing, time and resources are needed to regulate fake news effectively? What accountability is linked to such regulation? These are knotty issues (Pamungkas & Putri, 2019). Fundamentally, it is everyone’s duty to act knowledgably and responsibly in the creation, dissemination, access and use of news.

What are the consequences of fake news?

At the personal level, when people believe fake news, they are misinformed, and may make poor decisions. For example, parents have jeopardized their children’s and other families’ health because fake news (based on a misleading research study) claimed that vaccinations were harmful. Pizzagate, which resulted in threats and shootings, occurred because of individuals’ responses to fake news about Hillary Clinton (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017; Gyenes & Mina, 2018). Even if they don’t commit dangerous acts based on fake news, when people don’t know what to believe, they may become frustrated, polarized, more close-minded, confused, fearful, distrustful, cynical and withdrawn. Internationally, 39 percent of people surveyed by Reuters Institute in 2017 stated that they avoided news because it depressed them – or because they could not rely on the news to be true. None of this helps society.

Fake news has also tended to attack minority groups such as people of color or immigrants, the belief being that these groups threaten the existing “social order,” meaning those in power (Grambo, 2019). Fake news is more persistent when it exploits tensions between groups, and reinforces pre-existing biases, resulting in increased polarization and off-screen violence. This kind of group libel or defamation is very hard to counteract if there is even a modicum of truth (such as the fact that Muslims were involved in the 9/11 attack). Furthermore, groups in power are less likely to be corrected by minority groups who don’t have power, because those same minorities have less access to communication channels and may well be punished for what they say.

Fake news has also hurt mainstream media outlets. At the same time that fact-checking the news requires more time and staffing with the proliferation and sophistication of fake news, publishing deadlines have shortened and staffing has decreased. This situation is exacerbated with declining revenue as many advertisers have migrated to the timelier social media market. Furthermore, social media platforms facilitate the broadcasting of individual news items so that the link between editorial content and distribution has been largely severed. As early as 2009, researchers Gunter et al. found that Internet users preferred online news to offline news, and online news was trusted as much as offline news. As a result, mainstream media have less control and less power – and the proliferation of fake news has increased (Ireton & Posetti, 2018).

Even more substantial are the consequences of fake news on democratic processes. Russia is known throughout Europe as well as in the United States for spreading fake news and other disinformation to turn democracies against themselves by using hack attacks, terrorist online propaganda, fake news websites, and trolling (Benková, 2018). In Indonesia, protection rackets use fake news to aggravate section tensions and feelings of alienation (Azali, 2017).

Other consequences of fake news cross societal issues. Fake news has led to falling stock markets (Chen, Conroy & Rubin, 2015). Fake images in the news have primed racial stereotypes, with long-lasting effects such as anti-immigration actions and hate crimes (Messaris & Abraham, 2001). Fake news about vaccines has resulted in increasing cases of measles across the United States, conspiracy theory fake news about water fluoridation in New South Wales resulted in children being hospitalized for mass extractions because of tooth decay, and online fake news about health resulted in more Ebola-caused deaths in West Africa (Gyenes & Mina, 2018). These incidences are just the tip of the fake news consequence iceberg.

How can fake news be addressed?

Now is not the time to disengage, to withdraw from public discourse. It is not enough to delete fake news. Unhalted, fake news will continue unabated. Each stakeholder entity needs to address fake news: fake news creators and disseminators, government, educators and consumers. People need to become news and media literate. Those people who have accurate information need to step up and provide interventions and disseminate counter facts and stories. Enforceable policies and legislation need to be c...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The communication context
• 3 The discernment context
• 4 The responsibility context
• 5 The literacy context
• 6 The civic engagement context
• 7 The curriculum context
• Index