Fake news is a contemporary term for a phenomenon that is as old as civilization.
In its many forms, untruths can also be described as yellow journalism, tabloid journalism, propaganda or just plain gossip.
One reason “fake news” is deemed a new trend is the speed at which it can be distributed in today’s world of Internet and social media.
Social media is now the equivalent of the old telephone party lines that served much of Saskatchewan back before cyber space was even considered a possibility. It dates me, but I remember party lines. I’m not as old as you might calculate from that tidbit, because I was about 13 when phone service finally came to the remote part of Saskatchewan where I grew up on a farm. Prior to that my dad would have to drive into a nearby town to pay to use a phone there when he needed to call someone.
If you were clever and quiet you could listen in on your neighbours’ calls on the party line, giving you the opportunity to share whatever gossip was being passed back and forth. Of course, just like social media posts, there was no way of determining if what was being said was true. That didn’t make it any less fun to share, however. It wasn’t polite behaviour, but in today’s world almost everyone wants the world to see and hear their opinions or take on any topic.
And it seems the more an idea is shared the more it becomes a fact, instead of just conjecture.
A recent example was a tribute poem to the Humboldt Broncos that was submitted for publication. The second line stated as fact that the truck driver was to blame for the crash. But if you check credible news sources, authorities investigating what happened that day have never made that implication.
It’s also true that, if facts about an incident or situation are not provided, individuals will quickly make up their own versions of what occurred. I’ve experienced many encounters where I was stopped on the street and asked if I’d heard about an incident. Sometimes I have had access to whatever the authorities had released on the topic and invariably I’ll be filled in on some third- or fourth-hand juicy details that didn’t come from official sources. Let’s face it sensationalism is far more exciting than “just the facts ma’am.”
Deliberate distribution of fake news is a separate issue. It is disturbing when false information is used to further political agendas, but that too is not a new trend. During times of war, authorities use propaganda in a variety of ways. During the Second World War, Britain resurrected the First World War Ministry of Information to influence support for the war. What was produced wasn’t exactly false but it was designed to put a positive spin on the war effort.
Fascist regimes employ even more blatant tactics to sell their viewpoint to the masses, providing biased information to further their agendas.
While “biased” and “false” aren’t exactly synonymous the objective is the same.
So while not new, false news is still a concern in the information age. One rule to follow would be don’t take everything your read on the Internet at face value. Do your research.
