Fredrika Lahdenranta
This blog post was produced as part of the course “Social Media, Ideologies, and Ethics in the United States” at the University of Turku.
The era of alternate realities and widespread distrust in media sources has largely become defined by President Donald Trump. The line between truth and falsity has become increasingly blurry, which is highlighted by the subjective reality constructed by the U.S President.[i]
In the era of unlimited information, it is more and more difficult to discern what is actually true, partly due to social media’s role as a news source.[ii][iii] The term “fake news”[iv] is a powerful tool that mainly Trump and other right wing politicians[v] use for discrediting reliable news sources as biased. This relates to the idea of alternate realities, as it underlines the disappearance of objective fact based truth, and highlights value-laden statements. Consequently, “64% of adults believe fake news stories cause a great deal of confusion” in the U.S.[vi] Furthermore, “some 46% of adult social media users say they feel “worn out” by the number of political posts (…) they see on social media”[vii], according to studies by the PEW Research Center. The concern here is that feeling overwhelmed by the amount of information available and beliefs masqueraded as facts on social media, people may abandon critical thinking when making decisions on which news sites – or politicians – to trust.
In addition, the role of social media as a platform that provides not only information related to politics but also different forms of entertainment can be argued to convolute the matter even further. According to Waltzman, “the manipulation of our perception of the world is taking place on previously unimaginable scales of time, space and intentionality” due to “Internet and social media.”[viii] If social media is a platform that enables this distortion of the factual world, its role as an information source needs to be rethought. Consequently, the importance of critical thinking and information searching skills becomes even more evident.
Furthermore, the platforms that provide a means for disinformation to spread need to be challenged. Despite social media’s several benefits, its free form also offers an inlet for spreading false information, partly due to the fact that “their economics favour shareability over veracity and distribution over retraction.” [ix] For example, although Twitter claims “to be a place where people can (…) find reliable information, and express themselves freely and safely,”[x] it has at the same time allowed the false narratives of Trump, among others, to spread fast and far.[xi]
Fortunately,
several news media educate people on recognizing fake news and misinformation.[xii]
[xiii]
The problem is that they are mainly left-leaning liberal media that the right-leaning
media often judge as biased rather than objective. Due to the free form and
less regulated usage of social media platforms, providing only unbiased and
objective information is nearly impossible. Therefore, the responsibility to
fact-check and analyze received information rests mainly on the users.
[i] Leonhardt & Thompson. Trump’s Lies. New York Times. Dec 14, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/23/opinion/trumps-lies.html
[ii] Smith, Silver, Johnson, Jiang. Publics in Emerging Economies Worry Social Media Sow Division, Even as They Offer New Chances for Political Engagement. PEW research center. May 13, 2019.
[iii] Shearer & Gotfried. News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2017. Sep 17, 2017.
[iv] “Journalism or information that either deliberately or unintentionally misleads people and distorts reality by spreading false information, hoaxes, propaganda or misrepresentation of facts.” Mastrine. Defining “Fake News” Is Harder Than You’d Think. The Forum Network. Aug 13, 2019. https://www.oecd-forum.org/users/291420-julie-mastrine/posts/52249-defining-fake-news-is-harder-than-you-d-think
[v]LaBolt. The political right wins by striking fear into its citizens’ hearts. The left must raise their hopes. The Guardian. Dec 3, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/04/the-political-right-wins-by-striking-fear-into-its-citizens-hearts-the-left-must-raise-their-hopes
[vi] Anderson & Rainie. The Future of Truth and Misinformation Online. PEW research center. Oct 19, 2017.
[vii] Anderson & Quinn 46% of U.S. social media users say they are ‘worn out’ by political posts and discussions. PEW research center. Aug 8, 2019.
[viii] Waltzman, Rand.The Weaponization of Information: The Need for Cognitive Security. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation. 2017. https://www.rand.org/pubs/testimonies/CT473.html.
[ix] Yates. Fake news’ – why people believe it and what can be done to counter it. The Conversation. Dec 13 2016. https://theconversation.com/fake-news-why-people-believe-it-and-what-can-be-done-to-counter-it-70013
[x] Twitter rules. Platform manipulation and spam policy. Sep 2019. https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/platform-manipulation
[xi] Turner. Trump on Twitter: How a Medium Designed for Democracy Became an Authoritarian’s Mouthpiece in Boczkowski & Papacharissi ed. MIT Press, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/kutu/detail.action?docID=5326880 https://moodle.utu.fi/pluginfile.php/1237847/mod_resource/content/1/18_Trump_on_Twitter_How_a_Medium_Designed_for_Democracy_Became_an_Authoritarians%20_Mouthpiece.pdf
[xii] Binns, How to spot fake news this election. The Conversation. Dec 6 2019. https://theconversation.com/how-to-spot-fake-news-this-election-128413
[xiii] Murray. Cranky Uncle game takes on climate crisis denial and fake news. The Guardian. Dec 7, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/games/2019/dec/07/cranky-uncle-game-takes-on-climate-crisis-denial-and-fake-news