How Today's Fake News Is Different Than in the Past

Fake News

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Although the term "fake news" took center stage during Donald Trump's presidency, it actually first emerged toward the end of the 19th century—and indeed, false and distorted news has been a part of media history long before social media.

There are tons of examples of false news throughout history. It was used in Nazi Germany to build anti-Semitic enthusiasm. In America during the 1700s and 1800s, rampant racism led to the spreading of false stories about African Americans’ supposed crimes and inferiority to whites, some of which still linger today. In the 1890s, “yellow journalism” or reporting sensational news and rumors as facts, helped lead the United States into the Spanish-American War.

Eventually, there was criticism of the lack of journalistic integrity, which lead to the establishment of The New York Times. Shortly after, fake news declined until we saw an increase in web-based false stories and misinformation.

As a child, I remember seeing The National Enquirer on the stand, next to snacks, at the checkout counter of grocery stores. While the tabloid was readily available and many read it, it was also well known that it contained false news stories and misinformation. We also have parody news productions, which are common on Saturday Night Life, that are generally satire but incorrect depictions of real current events. That is also well known, and most don’t generally confuse SNL for real news.

Today’s fake news is different from what we have seen in the past for several reasons. The speed at which it is spread and the way it can influence consumers make it stand out. Today’s fake news is less likely to be created by hard news sources than in the past.

However, it is important to note that there are plenty of hard news sources that clearly report information based on specific political agendas or other forms of bias. There are also numerous instances of hard news sources using staging, adding a particular slant, or making mistakes in their news coverage. This type of reporting is also considered by some to be fake news and generally leads to distrust in the news source.

Social Media

Source: Pixabay

Generally, when people think of fake news, they think of false stories and misinformation that is spread on social media outlets. Much of this fake news involves sensational headlines or stories, distorts the facts, and can be quite deceptive (Wright et al., in press). The creator of the fake news story may take a piece of information that is true, such as a picture, and then create a completely different narrative.

For instance, a few years ago there was a post being shared widely on social media that showed a border fence with the caption that the fence was in Mexico on the border with Guatemala that was intended to keep so-called "freeloaders" out of Mexico. The caption compared this to the border wall that was proposed to be built on the border of Mexico and the U.S. In this example, the picture was of an actual border fence, but the fence was not in Mexico and was not on the border with Guatemala. Instead, it was a picture of a fence that Israel built in 2013 along their border with Egypt in an attempt to keep terrorists and illegal African immigrants from entering Israel.

Fake news that is spread by social media has some specific characteristics that make it hard to identify. It is often difficult, if not impossible, to locate the original source of the original post. This is due to the algorithms used by social media platforms to present users with posts and information. Users are presented with content based on the expectation of engagement with the content on behalf of algorithms of the social media platform. We are only presented with content that matches our current clicking, liking, and engaging patterns. This leads us to only being presented with information that is consistent with our current beliefs. Our own personal biases impact the news we are presented with as well as how we evaluate that information.

On social media, we are presented with posts that our “friends” have liked or shared or are presented with ads based on the interests that the social media platform algorithms believe we have based on our previous engagement patterns. This type of presentation can lead to users being engulfed in their own echo chamber, which just increases the beliefs we already hold, can actually polarize those beliefs, and lead to change avoidance.

In addition to this, we tend to process information in the quickest way possible, through mental shortcuts we have developed through the course of our lives (heuristics). One of the main heuristics related to believing fake news is confirmation bias. This is our tendency to seek out and accept information that confirms beliefs we already have and to discard information that is contrary to those beliefs.

The issue with fake news and misinformation is not a one-sided issue on behalf of the consumer. Social media platforms should adjust their algorithms to avoid echo chambers and confirmation bias, rather than encourage it. Hard news sources should ensure that they are reporting facts and accurate information. Better measures also need to be taken to avoid reporting mistakes, staging, exaggerations, and bias in reporting. Consumers need tools to help them identify fake news when they see it, fact check information they are presented with, as well as improve their media literacy. Hopefully, with society slowing down, people can now take the time to fact-check the information they see before taking it at face value.