Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Fake News Is an Old Problem

#1
C C Offline
http://m.nautil.us/blog/fake-news-is-an-old-problem

EXCERPT: In a presidential campaign that seemed to break rules of political decorum daily, one of the more alarming developments was the rise of a new kind of media: fake news. [...] As strange as this fake news seems to our modern sensibilities, it’s not at all unprecedented. There was another time in American history when ragingly partisan opinions, and even total fabrications, were a regular part of the news media. And then there was a time when the screeds and hoaxes died out—or at least retreated to the margins. One of the major forces driving this ebb and flow is change in media technology and in the information networks that cascade out from it.

American mass media developed in earnest and boomed over the course of the 19th century. [...] With so many newspapers popping up, and with ever-larger fortunes at stake, papers became more audacious in their competition for readers. [...] The pope was apparently reported dead 22 different times in the course of five years. Mark Twain concocted a tale about “solar armor” that would cool any person wearing it; publications as prestigious as The New York Times and Scientific American fell for it. The New York Sun ran a report—in six parts!—about the discovery of life on the Moon. The media landscape was as wild as the western frontier.

This yellow journalism wasn’t just a source of entertainment; it sometimes had life-and-death consequences....
Reply
#2
Ben the Donkey Offline
Perhaps one of the hallmarks of Trump's presidency (so far) is that this particular problem is being brought into the front and centre of society.

Both sides were apt to take advantage when the problem was controllable, to one extent or another - one had only to buy a few newspapers. Later, radio stations.
Then, Television.

The problem is becoming increasingly fragmented and uncontrollable with the advent of the internet, YouTube opinion pieces which one might pick and choose from according to what they already believe.

I wonder, sometimes, who still believes that democracy is real.
Reply
#3
C C Offline
(Feb 22, 2017 06:50 PM)Ben the Donkey Wrote: Perhaps one of the hallmarks of Trump's presidency (so far) is that this particular problem is being brought into the front and centre of society. Both sides were apt to take advantage when the problem was controllable, to one extent or another - one had only to buy a few newspapers. Later, radio stations. Then, Television. The problem is becoming increasingly fragmented and uncontrollable with the advent of the internet, YouTube opinion pieces which one might pick and choose from according to what they already believe.I wonder, sometimes, who still believes that democracy is real.


The Anglophone world (or at least the North American faction of it) seems to have gotten spoiled during the pre-internet 20th century by the eventual segregation of the most flagrant yellow journalism to tabloid magazines at the checkout counters, and balancing policies like the Fairness Doctrine and Accurate News and Information Act for general media.

Before then reports of items like mystery airships and giant beings were routinely sharing space with real news in even the respectable newspapers. Readers of the era were expected to be savvy enough to distinguish the sales-producing sensationalism from the staid offerings.
Reply
#4
Magical Realist Offline
On one of my early 20's birthday my sister gave me a framed picture of the infamous BatBoy page from the National Enquirer. She knew my penchant for Fortean events, despite them often being merely a case of yellow journalism. I have always had a place in my heart for the fictional newstory. It's a sort of subtle deconstruction of the whole news construct---as a factual account stripped of subjective spin or interpretation. What precisely is "there" in the story itself, and what precisely do we construct out of it?
Reply
#5
Zinjanthropos Offline
If they brought back the newspaper tomorrow I wouldn't mind. Trying to read the news on the internet is 100 times worse (my rough estimate based on frustration) than good old type set on paper. The internet is not known for 100% accurate reporting on any topic. SO by default, the news it displays is suspect. I can't think of a worse place to put truth in writing than on the internet, it just gets lost in a pasture full of bullshit. Not saying newspapers were perfect but I didn't have to sift through a billion choices to find one article that agreed with me.
Reply
#6
Secular Sanity Offline
I was having a conversation about fake news with an attorney the other night.  I asked about real life consequences and the legal repercussions.  Of course, there’s always defamation, but I was more curious about things such as pseudoscience.  If someone’s child was harmed due to the anti-vaccination hype, could they win a personal injury suit?  He didn’t think so, and said that there’s still a certain level of personal responsibility, which made me think of your article on paternalism, but then I thought of all the ridiculous manufacturer warning labels.  

I also mentioned rpenner’s LHC Safety topic, and the girl’s suicide over the Big Bang fear.  He asked me if I’d jump off a bridge if someone told me to. I said, I don’t know. It depends.  If several authority figures were telling me that it was strapped with explosives, I might.


https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/sC5b61K1BM8
Reply
#7
RainbowUnicorn Offline
(Feb 22, 2017 06:50 PM)Ben the Donkey Wrote: Perhaps one of the hallmarks of Trump's presidency (so far) is that this particular problem is being brought into the front and centre of society.

Both sides were apt to take advantage when the problem was controllable, to one extent or another - one had only to buy a few newspapers. Later, radio stations.
Then, Television.

The problem is becoming increasingly fragmented and uncontrollable with the advent of the internet, YouTube opinion pieces which one might pick and choose from according to what they already believe.

I wonder, sometimes, who still believes that democracy is real.

brainwashed fanatacism and its desire to control content of its reality.
Religious indoctrination of children to create insular thinking patterns that shut out facts & opinions that do not align with a religious dictator whom they follow.
modern society, meta data and the tribal instinct of survivalism in a fast changing world.
Evolutionary redactment of facts of the abating mind to conform to group neutrality.
Reactionism and the counter culture diatropic duality of bi-partisn conceptualisation.
Reply
#8
Zinjanthropos Offline
What's the worst thing the Press can do? Call Trump a liar? Christ, that will never work because it plays into Trump's hands. Tough spot to be in. For Trump it's a win/win. 

The Press needs to admit they fake news, pretty simple. But then Trump would have to accept the admission as the truth, but lose his advantage over them in the process. 

Internet news reporting is like the National Enquirer in the old days. Everybody knew it was fake but in the end you could line the bottom of your pet bird's cage with it or train a puppy to crap on it. What do people with pets that poop do nowadays to mitigate the problem?
Reply


Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Mysterious people prior to dynastic Egypt + 5 celebrities whose personality was fake C C 0 175 Aug 4, 2019 07:27 PM
Last Post: C C



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)