Read the following headlines and determine if the statements are true or false.
See the “Revisiting the Headlines” section of this book’s “Conclusion” for an explanation and discussion about these headlines.
A lie can run around the world before the truth has got its boots on.
—Quote often attributed to author Terry Pratchett, Winston Churchill, Mark Twain, James Watt, and various others
It’s no secret that the Internet is saturated with information of all kinds, and much of the information is of low or no quality. Yet, before we can blink, this information makes the rounds without being confirmed. It is all too easy to believe the latest gossip or innuendo or get lost in YouTube videos featuring pets and pranks. Unfortunately, there is another, darker dimension of information found online—there is an excessive amount of web-based information that is both sensational and malicious, to the point of being harmful and even dangerous. Even if such information is corrected or disproved, the audience’s attention has long shifted, the damage has already been done, and the original misinformation continues to float around online for future discovery.
It is now said that we live in a post-truth era—an era in which audiences are increasingly likely to believe information that appeals to their emotions and their personal beliefs, as opposed to seeking and accepting information that is regarded as factual and objective. People’s information consumption is being increasingly guided by the affective, or emotional, dimension of their psyche, as opposed to the cognitive dimension. This post-truth reality is one of the reasons why fake news has become so inescapable, and consequently, why it’s so hard to combat and interrupt the production and dissemination of deliberately false information.
The phenomenon of fake news is not new, nor is the concept of post-truth. The Colbert Report introduced us to the concept of “truthiness” over a decade ago, warning us, albeit comically, of the danger of accepting information and stories because they appeal to our emotions and not because they are supported by any real evidence or facts (Colbert 2005). Now, in 2018, journalists and the media remain on high alert and are warning their constituents about the “production of confusion” that surrounds the current presidential administration and encourages the industry that is fake news. Alternative facts are disseminated daily, and fact-based information or reporting that is negative or objected to is quickly and erroneously labeled as fake news, further obfuscating and suppressing information that citizens should be aware of and prioritizing.
In an age in which tweets and Facebook statuses are being reported as news, Internet users need to be competent and intelligent users of information; information consumers should be able and prepared to critique the “news” being broadcast, and they should be able to seek and find the information that is not being broadcast or otherwise prioritized. Additionally, they should be able to describe and understand the difference between the various providers and provocateurs of information. An approach to reaching this level of critical media consumption is to impart literacy skills to Internet users, many of whom patronize our libraries. Specifically, critical information literacy (Elmborg 2006; Eisenberg et al. 2004), digital literacy (Bawden 2008; Bawden and Robinson 2002), media literacy (Buckingham 2013; Hobbs 2011; De Abreu 2010), and ultimately metaliteracy (Jacobson and Mackey 2016, 2013; Mackey and Jacobson 2014, 2011; Witek and Grettano 2014) would facilitate the average user’s ability to seek, find, and use appropriate and quality information, which in turn would facilitate more meaningful learning and understanding. Literacy skills would facilitate a shift from the routine crowd-sourcing of information on the Internet to the substantive evaluation and usage of information. Further discussion about metaliteracy and the importance of critical information skills appears in chapter 4 of this report.
Information creation and consumption will always be a significant part of our lives and our society, influencing how we understand and interact with the world. But the more information we have access to, the harder it becomes to pick out the good bits, use them, and relevantly apply them to our lives and individual needs. Formulating ways to educate users of all ages, inside and outside of formal educational and library settings, is an important topic that is not limited to any one area or group of people, or any one discipline of study. The procurement and implementation of literacy skills is a long-term and integral part of addressing the challenges involved in information consumption.
Of particular note to this conversation is the role of journalism in the sphere of fake news. Jay Rosen, a media critic and professor of journalism at New York University (2017), warns against low-quality journalism and describes the “production of confusion” wrought in part by fake news and alternative facts by stating:
The production of confusion is a method that the Trump White House is using as control, and the fact that when we’re done listening to Kellyanne Conway, we know less as viewers doesn’t seem to bother the journalists who interview her, and they’re sort of slow in accommodating this fact.
The production of confusion is facilitated by the current administration’s knowledge of the media’s “deep grammar” and their subsequent manipulation of news outlets—they know that the media needs to have access to them, to interview them, to be privy to information and documents they are producing. Rosen suggests that this “deep grammar” of the media (the underlying and implicit business model of how the news outlets function) causes them to lower, or ignore, their standards and ethics, and not challenge fake news and alternative facts in the way they know that they could or should, because in doing so, they could inadvertently cut off their sources of information, rendering them noncompetitive (for example, when the New York Times is banned from White House press briefings, they are at a disadvantage when trying to analyze and report the news). Rosen further describes the “deep grammar” of the press by saying:
The deep grammar is like the logic beneath the practice. So, for example, the fact that you need your interviewees to come back is part of the deep grammar of journalism, right? It affects a lot of what you do but it’s not on the surface, it’s not explained to viewers. It’s not something that journalists would talk about very often. But certainly, Kellyanne Conway knows that and it gives her an advantage because she knows she has to be welcomed back.
But again, none of this is new. Journalism and media outlets are no strangers to controversy and manipulative tactics, nor are government or corporate entities unfamiliar with devices used to curry favor with, or penalize, journalists and the media. Consider the legacies of yellow journalism and propaganda and their particular relationships to political information and world events. Yellow journalism, synonymous with “the penny press,” “jazz journalism,” “tabloid TV,” and “Internet gossip,” is characterized by sensational or dramatic language and headlines, and exaggerated and potentially scandalous content that is poorly researched and often without merit (Cohen 2000, 8). Such stories are generated solely for attention and revenue (i.e., click-bait). Modern-day tabloids still engage in these practices, and social media is ripe with fantastic headlines and descriptions whose sole purpose is to get users to click and share. The goal is to employ “circulation-building gimmicks” that emphasize “drama over accuracy” (Cohen 2000, 18).
Propaganda is information of a prejudiced or disingenuous nature that is used to encourage a political cause or point of view (Stanley 2015). Propaganda utilizes the psychological devices of influencing and altering the attitude of a group toward a specific cause, position, or political agenda in an effort to form a consensus and to ensure a homogeneous viewpoint or belief. Propaganda is information that is subjective and is used primarily to influence the target audience and further an agenda, often by presenting facts selectively (perhaps lying by omission), or by using coded or suggestive messages or language to elicit an emotional response, as opposed to a rational response. Propaganda is often associated with material prepared by governments, but activist groups and corporate entities can also engage in propaganda. Despite its long historical context, propaganda is alive and well, and it has been at the heart of the criticism levied against Facebook after the 2016 U.S. presidential election (Shane and Goel 2017). Facebook at first denied any involvement in the dissemination of purchased advertisements designed to sway social media users, but it later admitted that fake Russian accounts purchased approximately $100,000 in targeted political ads prior to the election. The full effect of these ads is not yet known, but it has been established that these ads reached many people and may indeed have influenced their thinking and opinions, particularly if people did not realize that the information presented in the ads was fake. Propaganda is hiding in plain sight and influencing great multitudes of information consumers every day.
A cursory understanding of political economy and the underlying business structures of the news media is an important context for appreciating why fake news is so widespread and difficult to contest. More discussion about political economy, and the media’s impact on information evaluation and consumption, is featured in chapter 3.