The Fight against disinformation

When defining fake news, I agree with the definition of “deliberate fabrication of information with the intent to deceive," provided by Anthony Adornato's Mobile and Social Media Journalism: A Practical Guide. Specifying that the intention of the creator is to mislead creates a clear message to the audience that fake news is disinformation, it is calculated and rooted in the manipulation of the populus. Notably, I appreciated the Cambridge Dictionary addition that fake news or disinformation is usually created to influence political views or as a joke. What this illustrates is that the spreading of fake news is not only deliberate, but it works to serve a purpose from its author. Moreover, this chapter notes that main reasons for spreading disinformation is to make money, typically through online advertising, promote or discredit a person, company, movement, or cause and gain politically, particularly during an election. With that, whether it be increased engagement on social media to a more dangerous attempt to create a false narrative to elicit violence, as seen in the ways false information created the vacuum for January 6th on sites such as parlor, the perpetuation of fake news relies on the manipulation of the mass to benefit a specific narrative.

Tech companies and the platforms they create hold great power in their platforms. Reaching billions, these platforms play a key role in the perpetuation of information and with that the perpetuation of disinformation. When the question is asked if these platforms are to blame, I am conflicted. I do believe the spreading of disinformation without clearly stating that the article is false with a fact checker attached to the platform makes the tech companies complicit, however I do not believe that one can directly blame social media and tech for the increase in disinformation. Rather, I believe the proliferation of fake news can be mainly attributed to the deepening political divides in the United States and use of fake news to further that divide and further villainize the opposing viewpoint. When tweets spread untrue claims, these companies are providing a platform for falsity, which brings the question of what information can be censored and when does it cross a line? Because of this, I once again believe that the best way for tech companies to combat disinformation is to make it clear that claims within the tweet are untrue and have an active fact checker at work.

As storytellers and journalists dedicated to the truth, we have a responsibility to combat disinformation. The way to do this is to understand where it begins and how the weaponization of information can impact society in other ways.If we don’t understand the implications of something, we can’t truly know how to best stop it in its tracks. With that, I believe the key to combating fake news is individual awareness of bias and widespread education. Use of propaganda tactics to turn the public against journalism and see journalists as the enemy is a powerful and effective strategy that threatens our democracy and our ability to critically think. This Bernaysian strategy has been used throughout history to manipulate society and curate desired opinions that appease the status quo. As mentioned in the textbook, there is “ a perceived lack of appreciation for content that is truthful.”So, journalists need to educate themselves on the cycle of how these tactics play out and work to catch it before it gets to a level where journalism is met with immediate resistance from the mass. Additionally. We must be vigilant against allowing our own bias to overtake and thus falling into the traps of confirmation bias and echo chambers that inhibit our ability to see all viewpoints on an issue and engage in intellectual conversations regarding such.

Fighting Disinformation via Global News