"Fake news website"
 "Fake news website"(propaganda)   | |
|---|---|
| Interest of | PropOrNot |
| "Fake news website" is a meme started after the 2016 US election, to disparage websites that dissent from the opinions expressed by commercially-controlled media. It backfired and lead to the phrase "fake news", which promoted scepticism about corporate media and discouraged uncritical belief in their output. | |
The phrase "fake news website" was launched just after the 2016 US presidential election as a response to declining faith in the commercially-controlled media. However, the campaign went wrong, leading to the phrase "fake news" becoming popularised, which further encouraged critical thinking. Confidence in corporate media has continued to decline.
Official narrative
On 15 November 2016, a week after the 2016 US presidential election, Wikipedia user jfhutson started a page entitled "Fake news website".[1] Many commercially-controlled media outlets also started to echo the idea that the internet was full or Russian propaganda, and that this had influenced the outcome of the election. They have lead to calls that information on the internet should be checked for validity by expert "fact checkers", to avoid misleading people. The shorter phrase "fake news" caught on as a popular insult.
Problems
News travels fast between communication media, so websites, television, newspapers constantly draw from and cite one another - so the claim that websites should be particularly suspect is on its face rather a dubious one. Any website that only published incorrect stories would hardly be effective at deceit, so one is logically left with the assert that websites can deceive by mixing lies with truth -- no different in fact from old media.
"Fake news"
- Full article: Fake news
shorter phrase "fake news" caught on, becoming Macquarie Dictionary's "word[sic.] of the year" for 2016.[2] A Wikipedia page for "fake news" was created on 15 January 2017.[3] In an article which applied the phrase in the context of KGB cold war propaganda, the BBC admitted (on the 1st April, 2017) that "the term fake news has taken on many meanings."[4]
- Full article: Fake news
References
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fake_news_website&oldid=749709748
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jan/25/fake-news-named-word-of-the-year-by-macquarie-dictionary
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fake_news&dir=prev&action=history
- ↑ http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39419560
