With the recent Presidential election, the issue of “fake news” has been making headlines. The Washington Post recently ran an article entitled “Russian propaganda effort helped spread ‘fake news’ during election, experts say.”
The term “fake news” is being used to refer to a number of news items, there are news sites that are satire (not believable), news sites that carry only fake news, and news sites that sometimes get stories wrong.
Locally, there’s a site the Spring Hill Courier which carries fake news articles. Most are satire although some are believable. For years, the story about a “Six Flags Theme park coming to Spring Hill” has been shared on Facebook. This story is not true and, at one point, the County Commission felt the need to address the rumors and try to dispel them. They were not successful.
Fake news is not a new problem. It is getting more attention than it has in the past, but the issue is not new. With the creation of the Internet, it has become easier to publish content and this has exacerbated the fake news problem as more and more sites are created that carry fake news.
In addition to it being easier to publish, it has been shown that many people prefer news that is funny. Many younger people say that they get their news from the Onion and the Daily Show. These sites are fake news, but since they are enjoyable they make it easier to consume the articles.
Sometimes these comedy shows become what is remembered. Saturday Night Live had Tina Fey, looking very much like Sarah Palin, saying that “I can see Russia from my house.” This was not something that Sarah Palin actually said, but it is her most famous quote.
Fake news has been an issue for a long time and there is no easy solution. If we allow gatekeepers to decide what stories are real legitimate stories, we are no longer free.
The only solution is for consumers to become more discriminating and able to figure out themselves if stories are real or false.