The concept of «fake news» is now known to almost everyone. Media and social networks juggle information — words and pictures — to form one or another point of view in us. Who needs fake news?
What do you think is the most consumed product by mankind? No, it’s not sugar or even water. This product is information. And if earlier it was distributed mainly through television, radio and the print press, today each of us has in his pocket its inexhaustible source — a mobile phone.
And this, of course, affects the quantity, and most importantly, the quality of the data that we receive. Our brain is designed in such a way that we constantly want to consume information, and today the abundance of social networks and online publications for every taste satisfy this need in full.
But it is worth remembering that not all information is the ultimate truth. Every day more and more fake news appears on the network.
We will try to figure out what fake news is and why they are created.
What’s this
First, let’s see what is fake news? This is false or fictional news created to divert the attention of the audience or form a certain opinion in it. Fake or fabricated news are information products, in the structure of which the truth is either partially contained or completely absent. At the same time, their main danger lies in the fact that such news is similar to ordinary news, as a result of which they are easily mistaken for the truth and are actively distributed by ordinary users.
One might think that fakes have appeared in our lives recently, but if you look into the history of the concept of fake news, it turns out that their roots go back to Antiquity. For example, in the first century BC. BC Emperor Octavian spread false information about his rival Mark Antony. He spread rumors about Mark’s drinking habits. Later, Octavian published a document called «The Will of Mark Antony», which indicated that Mark bequeathed that, after his death, he would be buried in the tomb of the pharaohs. At that time, this news infuriated the people of Rome. But then it turned out that it was fabricated.
Dangerous weapon
Types of Fake News
All fakes can be divided into 3 types:
complete lie and fabrication
distortion and misinterpretation of real facts,
some humor and satire.
Once upon a time, fakes were just rumors, then texts, then photoshopped pictures or badly edited videos. But today, modern technologies allow you to fake anything — audio messages, correspondence in social networks and instant messengers, calls, and so on. And all this, as a rule, looks very realistic. Such content is often distributed by bots and artificial intelligence.
Who benefits?
How is fake news most often used?
In politics to control attention and public opinion.
In media to entertain the audience and increase the attendance of resources.
In finance to manage the demand for goods and manage the money of the population.
In business to damage the reputation of certain persons or companies.
Fake news can be very dangerous to society. Such news generates panic in people and creates a state of anxiety and uncertainty.
All this is complicated by the speed of the spread of fakes in the media and the fact that most of the audience cannot distinguish the original from the fake. And people, without realizing it, themselves become distributors, sharing and commenting on false information.
And if some fakes are conditionally harmless, then others pose a threat to the mental health of people or are a tool for manipulating consciousness.
Classic example
By 1999, 95% of the UK population had been vaccinated against measles. Later, due to opponents of the vaccine, the figure dropped to 80%. And in November 2008, the number of measles cases rose to a record high in 1996. The panic was caused by medical worker Andrew Wakefield. He stated that measles, rubella and tick vaccines can cause autism. The doctor’s article on vaccination was published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet. At the same time, little was known about Andrew Wakefield before, but after the publication, he became a frequent hero of television programs.
No one could confirm the results of Wakefield’s study, and the BMJ magazine decided to conduct an independent about this question. It turned out that the doctor was not mistaken, but simply falsified the results of the study. He had his own interests in proving that such vaccination could cause autism. The reason is simple: Wakefield was one of the founders of a company that received a patent in 1996 for a rapid test to detect traces of measles in the body. Andrew planned to earn 28 million euros with his help within three years. As a result, thousands of Britons who refused the vaccine, relying on this fake article, alas, fell ill.
Read here about how not to get lost in a sea of information, not to make hasty decisions and be more critical of everything that is written and said.