News Fake news

[Abstract]

I agree with the concept but resent the terminology. Could the media and politicians not have come up with a more original phrase. In my opinion a huge shame and there is so much irony attached it boggles the mind. Personally, it distracts me from the real discussion. What on earth was anyone thinking. It is beyond me.

When it comes to the concept rather than the phrase - isn't it sad that we need to address this. Wouldn't it be wonderful if "human beings" behaved in the way intended by that phrase rather than the way most of us have experienced it.

 

[Friday]

Fake news is a specific type of yellow journalism, which is a specific type of misinformation.

It’s always existed, at least since Ancient Rome & possibly earlier, but usually as an unimportant / rarely utilized branch of yellow journalism... but it’s become drastically more relevant in recent years the wake of

- news media claiming to be “entertainment” in order to bypass neatly over journalist integrity
- unattributed “news” sources (bloggers, bots, advertisement, & recreational journalism) gobbling up market share.

I think the following linked article does a pretty good job of contextualizing the issues in play.

Claire Wardle of Link Removed identifies seven types of fake news:

1. satire or parody ("no intention to cause harm but has potential to fool")
2. false connection ("when headlines, visuals or captions don't support the content")
3. misleading content ("misleading use of information to frame an issue or an individual")
4. false context ("when genuine content is shared with false contextual information")
5. imposter content ("when genuine sources are impersonated" with false, made-up sources)
6. manipulated content ("when genuine information or imagery is manipulated to deceive", as with a "doctored" photo)
7. fabricated content ("new content is 100% false, designed to deceive and do harm")

https://firstdraftnews.org/fake-news-complicated/



https://www.ifla.org/publications/node/11174
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license

 

[Abstract]

@Friday , thanks!
My concentration and ability to look things up is presently zero. To clarify: you are saying the term "Fake News" was coined in or before ancient Rome. Yes? That the term has been known in journalism since way back and the links you provided date back to a time before the term has been used more recently. Correct?

 

[shimmerz]

Wouldn't it be wonderful if "human beings" behaved in the way intended by that phrase rather than the way most of us have experienced it.

Pretty sure it was Irene Lyon who said that the world is really the way it is because we all have such jacked up nervous systems. Until we stop all of this crazy sensationalism that our nervous systems will continue to be jacked up.

I have stopped (for years) watching the news anymore. Can't even read it. I recall watching the world trade centre plans slamming into the building over and over and over and over again. Not sure that did anything but throw me into a traumatized state. Who needs more of that?

That's maybe not fake news but goddammit - being subjected to that every time one turns on the TV or picks up a paper? So not good for me.

We had a couple of issues here in Toronto over the past year with a person driving over people on a sidewalk and another just recently being a shooting on the Danforth. I have loads of friends on the Danforth. No idea if they are okay or not. I haven't bowed to the peer pressure of watching and listening ad nauseum to the 'And a lone gunman kills 2 and injures X many. Who was this man and what drove him to perform this act of terrorism?' It's still playing over and over on the radio and tv. I am trying to calm my system down not allow it to be ramped up without my permission.

So sorry, a bit of a rant @Abstract. What I have described is more sensationalism at its finest but then if one were to mix in the fake news concept with the sensationalism, I feel like I am walking into a house of mirrors.

News isn't balanced with good/bad. It isn't put out there so that we will feel warm and fuzzy or intelligent or empowered. My thought is that it is sold so that advertising is in demand for that particular media source. I have to protect my nervous system from drama. Given my own problems I can't possibly pour myself into what is happening in the world when I can't even figure out my own shit. Especially when it is being done so that the papers can make more money.

lol. No idea if this is a relevant post to the topic. Just have a bunch to say about news in general these days. I mean, it isn't like they are selling feel good news these days. They are selling stuff that scares the shit out of us and we all fall into repeatedly allowing ourselves to be exposed to it. I think it is just a whole whack of fear mongering and I don't know that our society needs more fear.

So my stab at a better name than 'fake news'?
'Trigger the shit out of people news'
Best way in the world to get a loyal fan base. And it also makes sense to keep the interest up by finding more and more messed up things going on out there so that you trigger the shit out of people on a regular basis.
Not so good for my ptsd.

Sorry.... that really was a rant.

 

[Justmehere]

There is a new group called Civil that is trying to create a blockchain based, decentralized, governed platform for journalism to combat fake news.

It is really interesting, but terribly complex. I wonder how it will do.

 

[Friday]

To clarify: you are saying the term "Fake News" was coined in or before ancient Rome.

Well... in Ancient Rome they spoke Latin

If you’re looking at just the word itself? Fake is derived from criminal slang on the late 1700 & 1800s

An extract from A New and Comprehensive Vocabulary of the Flash Language, a dictionary of criminal slang compiled by James Hardy Vaux in 1819.

“To fake any person or place, may signify to rob them; to fake a person, may also imply to shoot, wound, or cut; to fake a man out and out, is to kill him; a man who inflicts wounds upon, or otherwise disfigures, himself, for any sinister purpose, is said to have faked himself; if a man’s shoe happens to pinch, or gall his foot, from its being overtight, he will complain that his shoe fakes his foot sadly; it also describes the doing of any act, or the fabricating any thing, as, to fake your slangs, is to cut your irons in order to escape from custody; to fake your pin, is to create a sore leg, or to cut it, as if accidentally, with an axe, etc., in hopes to obtain a discharge from the army or navy, to get into the doctor’s list, etc.; to fake a screeve, is to write a letter, or other paper; to fake a screw, is to shape out a skeleton or false key, for the purpose of screwing a particular place; to fake a cly, is to pick a pocket; etc., etc., etc.”

The types of false/counterfeit/imposter/etc. information and sourcing used to either deliberately deceive, propagandize, entertain, or provide commentary were exceedingly common in Roman times (and quite possibly earlier, but the Roman news machine was quite robust). But they would have used Latin words -or the occasional Greek word, like comedy- to describe them ;)

 

[Anarchy]

Have you heard of Noam Chomsky's ideas on "manufactured consent"

I think that you'll find they give an interesting perspective on "news" and the ongoing debates over what ammounts to attempts at censorship.

 

[Abstract]

So, was very interested listening to the results of the recent investigation into Cambridge Analytica and Facebook. I watched an enlightening documentary straight before creating this thread. Complex questions arise from all this.

I have no doubt that the phenomenom of disinformation is as old as man (can imagine 1 caveman doing cave paintings of monstrous animals to scare others away from his prize beehive!:troll:) and that it isn't going to stop, ever. Can and do hope that we can try to contain it a little bit when it comes to organised versions of advertising. Professional advertising. We have a problem at present as social media is exempt.

My problem with the term "Fake News" (whether it was created by someone else or not) is that it is has more recently been highjacked by one person and often used as a way of evading truth and creating exactly what it claims to stand against. As a result I don't think anyone seriously wanting to look at the real issues surrounding disinformation should be using the term. It is corrupted and I think has lost some of its meaning. It has definitely done so for me. I don't know how serious journalists or analysts can use it.

PS. Friday, I thought it may have been a direct translation from ancient Roman! You never know. Thought best to check. As said at the beginning, totally believe in the concept. Don't like the use of the phrase because it has been misused.

Thank you everyone! Thinking of a way to manage social media whilst looking after peoples freedom is such a tricky one. Shall read what all have you have shared when I get the time and my brain starts functioning again. :inlove:

 

[hodge]

Well... in Ancient Rome they spoke Latin

If you’re looking at just the word itself? Fake is derived...

OMG, Friday! Do you own the Oxford English Dictionary? I don't know of any other source that can pinpoint when a term came to be used as it is. If so, I am so so jealous! The reference book publisher I worked for for many years distributed the OED in the U.S., but none of us could ever get free copies of it. We could use it at work, but that was about it.

ETA: Oops, just now looked back at your post and saw the source. I'd still like to see what the OED says about this, though.