WHAT IS FAKE NEWS?

Fake News is essentially just news that is untruthful. Often Fake News is said to exist within the much larger ecosystem of Misinformation and Disinformation. The University of Michigan defines misinformation as 'false or inaccurate information that is mistakenly or inadvertently created or spread; the intent is not to deceive' and disinformation as 'false information that is deliberately created and spread in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth'.

There have been attempts made to distil Fake News into a series of main types. Notably, Journalist Claire Wardle of First Draft declares the main strains of fake news are as follows. Satire or Parody - Fake News that has no intention to cause harm, but has potential to fool. Misleading content - Fake News that uses misleading information to frame in issue or individual. Imposter content - Fake News that seeks to impersonate genuine trusted sources of news. Fabricated content - Fake News that uses new content that is 100% false, designed to deceive and do harm. False connection - Fake News where headlines, visuals, or captions do not support the content. False content - Fake News when genuine content is shared with false contextual information. Manipulated content - Fake News when genuine information or imagery is manipulated to deceive.

WHY DOES FAKE NEWS HAPPEN?

Fake News has always been present in society. However the term only emerged around the 1890's. And it wasn't until the 21st century that it had significant relevance. The phrase was popularised by Journalist Craig Silverman in the early 2000's and 2010's with the rise of political polorisation becoming a pressing concern.

From 2016 (With the election campaign of former US President Donald Trump) the term has become a part of our everyday language.

As for why this issue exists, there are a number of reasons. The most basic explaination is that when it comes to new's ability to spread, fake news has the advantage of generally being more intresting that real news.

But there are certainly sinister motivations for fake news. Fake news is undoubtably popular in the spreading of political agendas. Financial gain is also a strong motivator, espesially as the production of fake news has proven to be a lucrative buissness venture within the advertising space. Then of course, there are the well meaning purveyours of fake news who are actidental facilitators. Such as satirical news outlets that have the potential to be misinterpreted. information.

Social media is also a singificant purveyour of fake news. Its enviroment that enables instant gratification and encourages an absense of consious consumption proves to be the perfect breeding ground for all that is falsified and untrustworthy.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

Most notably, when it comes to who should be responsible, the two schools of thought are as follows. Those who believe that the digital technologies industry should be held solely acoutnable for Fake News. And those who believe that it is the responsibility of the general public alone to educate themselves and remain vigilant about Fake News. Both opinions make strong arguments and present valid potential solutions to the issue of Fake News.

As for my personal opinion, my suggestion would be that society takes points from both perspectives.

We should hold social media platforms and the digital technologies industry accountable and responsible for mitigating the risks and output of Fake News. I would suggest government intervention, or a global agreement of some kind that holds platforms to certain standards of policing their content. Whilst also encouraging the public to continue to put pressure on platforms to unite and begin the process of collaborative self regulation.

That being said I think it is also important that we the public should not dissociate ourselves from responsibility towards this issue. We need to take it upon ourselves to be better educated and make conscious decisions when sharing or consuming information/news. It should be at the forefront of all our minds to ensure the validity of our news sources and to refrain from the spread of harmful falsified or manipulated content.

HOW TO IDENTIFY FAKE NEWS