The reading for this week dived into the concept of ‘fake news’, not only defining it but also posing some very interesting questions that challenged my beliefs and thought processes.

 

While I had certainly heard about the concept of fake news before reading this article, I had not considered how long fake news has been around for. The article mentioned Osborn Welles’ radio show that caused panic in 1938 as many believed it to be real news depicting an alien invasion. It shocked me to think of fake news going back that far as previously I had always considered it to be a product of the internet made famous by the Trump campaign. However, the more I think about it the more I can think of examples in history where fake news has been spread. I have always had a keen interest in history, particularly Russian history and the Russian Communist leaders, particularly Stalin, were the kings of fake news. Stalin manipulated photos in order to gain popularity with the people and therefore power in the 1920s, which is another example of how fake news has been used decades before the internet. That is not to say the internet hasn’t played a large role in the production and spread of fake news. On social media, everyone is a creator and sharer of content. You can access hundreds of news stories, articles, opinion pieces with just one click and you can reply and have an argument in the comments within seconds of reading. And it seems to me that people aren’t really paying attention to where this information is coming from. This brings up a problem with legitimacy, which the reading also discussed. While journalists are expected to “provide independent, reliable, accurate and comprehensive information”, not everybody who creates social media posts has to adhere to the same standards. Which to me poses another interesting issue related to gaining news from social media sites. Often people only look for news and opinions they agree with. Particularly in America at the moment, when the country is very much divided between right and left, often people will find one news source that they trust and agree with and exclusively get their news from there. The problem with this is that many stations are biased or hoping to maintain sponsors, so the news they put out is going to be skewed. People don’t often go out in search of options or news that disagree with their world image. Which poses many other problems within the world today, not just to do with news but also how people form opinions about the goings on in the world. It makes me question what it is about certain sites or networks that make them ‘trustworthy’ to people. Why is it that I trust ABC news more than I would trust Channel 9? Is my hatred of the Herald Sun purely politically motivated? I mostly dismiss these other ‘lessor’ news outlets as unreliable or even “fear mongering” which could be an unfair outlet. But I think the biggest factor for me is who benefits. An episode of 60 minutes that is apparently “for the people” and “exposes” terrible goings on will have ads running throughout and is driven by dramatising in order to secure views. Perhaps it is the money grabbing that makes me uncertain?

 

I think the economic factors contributing to fake news should not be understated. Many social media sites get advertising based on clicks so misleading headlines forming click-bait have become the norm. Advertising is everywhere, especially online and many companies are more concerned with making the advertisers happy than anything else. But perhaps that is my own personal bias skewing my view again.

 

Regardless, the concept of fake news is a lot more complex than I had initially thought. Bias, false reporting and commercial gain all play a role in the spreading of fake news, which can have disastrous effects on society and has caused many to distrust journalists – the very people who are “expected to report, above all things, the truth”. I look forward to exploring the concept more in class and finding out just how difficult it can be to fully fact check a story. Because I have a hunch it isn’t going to be very straight forward!