Fake news is a coined term which refers a story or narrative that was conjured up or manufactured out of thin air, often hidden as an authentic news report with the sole aim of deceiving or deluding people. This term is considered coined because as early as 5-7 years ago.
It wasn’t a word that would get more than a handful of search results if it were to be looked up on an internet search engine. But more recent times, it has gained more popularity special thanks to the 45th U.S president Donald trump. In fact, in 2017, Collin’s dictionary picked it up to be added to their next edition of their dictionary and as their “word of the year” as it had garnered usage of up to 365% since it was first used in 2015.
Fake news has become a menace that has been threatening journalism & journalists all over the world. It isn’t safe to say ‘Fake News’ is a thing of the 21st century but as technology has advanced so has the ability to send false information over multiple platforms in a short amount of time. Political bodies aren’t the only ones affected by this.
The first source of fake news is Satire; Satire is a form of political commentary. Comic actors, writers or comedians, often air sketches on television or publish drawings or articles in newspapers and online websites used to ridicule or poke fun at political bodies such as a failing government or a controversial politician. The main purpose of satire is just for laughs and to addressing many social issues through comedy. Many of these websites actually resemble actual news websites with daily headlines, articles, videos and even live streams of reporters on the field.
Satirical news sites unlike Fake news sites do not exist to cause harm or to circulate fake news but it definitely has the capacity to fool gullible readers who could misinterpret it as the truth because they can’t tell the difference between a real news report and a joke. “The other news” is one of the satirical television shows that airs in Nigeria.
Another method in which these faceless perpetrators of fake news operate is through false connections. How many times have you been browsing through the internet and come across some promoted articles like “EX Nigerian presidents you didn’t know where gay” and then the picture used is a picture is a well-known, “well-not-gay” ex-president, causing a curious reader to ‘click on the link’ only to discover the person in the picture wasn’t even included in the list. It is known as a false connection because it uses a headline, photo or caption which does not correspond to the content or the body of the said article.
Another popular method of spreading false information is “phony websites or sources”:
This has to be the most popular agent of fake news. These sites often pretend to be the original sites or claims to be affiliated with a real source. Even social media accounts who use a handle almost identical to the original source. For example; @Theguardian could be altered to @Thegaurdian and so many unsuspecting users fall for this trick. A recent occurrence of this was the shocking discovery that an impostor was behind handle on twitter @ASUUNGR who was not in any way an employee of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, but an impostor.
Is also another method of twisting or bending the truth. These include employment of photo or video editing software to doctor an image, video or even audio in order to cause confusion, to stir controversy or to convince a mainstream audience. This type of fake news is has very negative effects on our society because due to the wonders of technological advancements, even trained experts sometimes are not able to ascertain the truth by telling a real image or video from a doctored one.
Due to the widespread of content manipulation, defaulters are now quick to use the occurrence to their advantage. A recent case involved a video that made its way to the internet. It had a video of the Governor of Kano state collecting a bribe of money and concealing it in this “Baban Riga”. The governor’s camp, in an attempt to salvage whatever integrity he had left denied the accusations and saying the video was doctored.
Although, there are several convincing ways to engineer a story with the sole purpose of causing trouble, measures are being taken to stop the spread of fake news. Russia lawmakers passed a bill on “Banning fake news” and “Disrespecting the government”. It stated that people who are charged under the new legislation could face fines. If offenders were to repeat such offense would face jail time.
As an individual too, there are some tips you could use in helping you separate fact from fiction. When you see an image, carry out a visual analysis on it. Think and apply your common sense , before hitting the forward or retweet button. Make Use reverse image search applications like ” Fotoforensics”. If it is a website carrying a news article, check the page if it has a section that holds information of the writer or the website, it should undergo proper assessment to see if something sketchy would be noticeable.
Furthermore, you could read the content of the write-up carefully checking the grammar, spelling and punctuation marks. Chances are if it has a lot of spelling errors. Written in all capital letters, then the news is probably untrustworthy.