Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8kt4b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-06T07:38:55.275Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Should We be Afraid of Fake News?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2021

Get access

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Over the past few years, ‘fake news’ has dominated public discourse, being blamed for anything from affecting electoral results to manipulating consumers, ultimately giving online social media and Internet platforms a bad name. However, I believe that there is no such thing as ‘fake news’. For the reasons explained below, I think that ‘fake news’ , a contradiction in terms, is merely a neologism, a clever catchphrase used today by politicians in order to swiftly discredit opponents and at the same time wink at their voters. The only thing different from similar phenomena in the past is the Internet and its champions, online social media platforms, that provided a suitable environment for the deployment of such ‘fake news’. However, this to me being merely an early-adoption problem that will be addressed once these new technological phenomena have been properly assimilated by society and social sciences, I believe that legislators, no matter how concerned they are in the short term, should sit this one out.

WHAT IS ‘FAKE NEWS’ EXACTLY?

According to the Cambridge Dictionary , ‘fake news’ is ‘false stories that appear to be news, spread on the Internet or using other media, usually created to influence political views or as a joke’ – in short, therefore, false stories. ‘False’ , in turn, means ‘not real, but made to look or seem real’. Thus, ultimately, ’ fake news'seems to be unreal but plausible made-up stories.

If only things were so simple. In the UK, the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the House of Commons identified the following types of ‘fake news’ in its relevant report: fabricated content, manipulated content, imposter content, misleading content, false context of connection, satire and parody. It also added ‘micro-targeted messaging’ , before finally recommending that the term be completely abandoned and either ‘misinformation’ or ‘disinformation’ used instead. The futility of suggesting new terms to replace a globally used term aside, this is useful to demonstrate that, in fact, when we are talking about ‘fake news’ , we do not really know what we are talking about.

Type
Chapter

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×